
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: 




A REVELATION OF THE LOVE OF GOD 



When the Wild Crab- Apple 
Puts Forth Blossoms 

Nature Sermons Preached in the 
First Methodist Episcopal 
Church, Aurora, 111. 

*y 

The Reverend 
CHARLES KNAPP CARPENTER 

Of the Rock River Conference 



t 



Cincinnati: 
JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 



EATON AND MAINS 



<C 3VV5 



Copyright, 1911 
By Jennings and Graham 



r 



f 




This Book is Dedicated to Lovers of 
God Who are Seeking Closer 
Acquaintance with Him 
as They Go About in 
His Beautiful 
World. 



CONTENTS 
U 

0)011*9 

I. The Coming of Spring, - - 20 

II. Nature-Interpretation of Job, 50 

III. Impossible Songs of Nature and 

Redemption, - - - - -82 

IV. The Immanent God, - - - 108 

V. The Message of the Canadian 

Wilderness, - - - - - 138 

VI. God the Eternal Force, - - 172 

VII. Pathfinders, - - - - -196 

VIII. Delivering the Prisoner, - 222 

IX. Autumn Glories, - - - 244 

X. Much Sowing and Little Reaping, - 272 



CONTENTS 



I. When the Wild Crab -Apple Puts 

Forth Blossoms, - - - - 21 

II. Where Wast Thou When I Laid the 

Foundations of the Earth ? - 51 

III. No Man Could Learn That Song, - 83 

IV. The Creator of the Ends of the 

Earth Fainteth Not, - - - 109 

V. The Voice of One Crying in the 

Wilderness, - - - - -139 

VI. God Said, - - - - - 173 

VII. There is a Path Which no Fowl Know- 
eth, and Which the Vulture's Eye 
Hath Not Seen, - - - - 197 

VIII. He Shall Bruise the Head of the 

Serpent, - - - - - 223 

IX. The Whole Earth is Full of His 

Glory, - - 245 

X. Some Seed Fell by the Wayside ; Some 

Fell Upon Stony Places ; Some Fell 
Among Thorns; Some Fell into 
Good Ground and Brought Forth 
Fruit, - - - - - - 273 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Wild Crab-Apple Thicket - - Cover Page 

A Revelation of the Love of God, - - 2 
Catbird Feeding Young, - - - - 12 
"Good Morning," Chickadee leaving nest, 16 
"Wild Crab-Apple Blossoms," - - - 23 
"The Redbud Blooms by the Swollen 

Waters," ------ 35 

"Wonders of Nature," The Upper Dalles 

of the Wisconsin River, - - - 61 
"The Booming Bitterns Reared Their 

Young," ------ yy 

"The Singing of the Brook," - - 85 

"The Music of the Pines," Ludington, Mich., 93 
"A Shifting Hill of Sand," Ludington, 

Mich., - - - - - - - in 

" Every Bird Cares For Its Little Ones," 

Yellow Warbler, - - - ,- - 135 
"Rocks and Wooded Hills and Flowing 

Waters," " Castle Rock," Oregon, 111., - 141 
"A Tiny Bird on Great Waters," Piping 

Plover, ------ 

"Workshop of the Mighty Jehovah," Pine 

Creek, 111., - - - - - 175 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



"The Tree, With its Harvest of Young Birds/' 187 

"The Vulture's Eye," Young Marsh Hawks, - 199 
< ' Whither Dost Thou Pursue Thy Solitary 

Way ? ' ' Little Green Heron, - - 213 

' ' The Serpent, ' ' Garter Snake, - - - 2 2 5 
"Beneath the Wings of the Parent," 

Traill's Flycatcher, - - - - 229 

"When Leaves are Thickly Strewn," - 247 
"A Walk Among the Trees," - - - 251 
" Dying Leaves," - ----- 261 

" A Field of the Great Sower," Wild 

Bergamot, - - - - - - 275 

"Nesting in Hidden Places," King Rail, - 287 

"Good-bye," 294 




GOD TEACHES THE PARENT BIRD TO CARE FOR 
ITS YOUNG 



FOREWORD 

Xt 

THESE sermons have been preached at 
varying intervals of several months. 
They have come from the heart of one 
who has intensely loved nature from a boy, who 
believes and has always believed that this is 
God's world, that He thinks enough of it to 
make it His winter-residence and summer-resi- 
dence alike, that He is always at home, and can 
be found in it by one who seeks to know Him ; 
and that as God teaches the parent bird to care 
for its young, to protect them and feed them, 
so will He teach and guide and protect His 
children. 

These sermons are sent out with the hope 
that they may arouse pleasant memories in the 
minds of lovers of God's world, that they may 
stimulate a greater love for God and His world, 
and that they may help some to find Him who 
somehow may have come mistakenly to believe 
13 



FOREWORD 



that the God of the Bible, the Christian's God, 
and the God of the Universe are different Be- 
ings. There is but ONE GOD, whether we 
worship Him in church or in field, while listen- 
ing to singing choir or singing brook, to the 
voice of the prophet or the voice of the stars. 



14 




"GOOD MORNING' 

Chickadee at Home 



INTRODUCTION 

U 

HUGH MACMILLAN has shown the 
depth and beauty there are in nature- 
interpretations of the Holy Scriptures. 
The God who made all things which bear the 
stamp Good, "and God saw that it was good," 
— that God will have pleasure in having His 
Scriptures interpreted in terms of the wood and 
the wild and the field. 

Besides, this is no longer an inference since 
the Christ preached in our town; for His 
method was so flushed with the dawn and rest- 
ful with the dusk and did so distil the meanings 
of the growing things and the foxes and the 
birds and the smell of the new-plowed fields, 
He made a picture-book in words of such things 
as call the open sky their house. 

My friend Carpenter, who knows so much 
about God's wild beasties and who knows the 
Christ to love Him, has done well to speak with 
2 17 



INTRODUCTION 



picture and with word on the parables of God 
which are forever present in the Scriptures of 
Written Truth and in the scriptures of Nature. 
I have been afield with him and have been at 
prayer with him, and know he cares for the 
whole of the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father. 

Therefore, welcome this volume. May it 
bring forth fruit both by winter and by summer, 
being one of God's perennials which shall wear 
blossoms and ripened fruit together all the year. 

William A. Quayle. 



18 



I 

THE COMING OF SPRING 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



"My beloved spake and said unto Me, Rise up, my love, 
my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the 
rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the 
time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the 
turtledove is heard in our land ; the fig tree putteth forth her 
green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good 
smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. . . . 
Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the. vine 
flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegran- 
ates bud forth. . . . The mandrakes give a smell, and at 
our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old." — 
Song of Solomon. 

"And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said 
in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for 
man's sake ; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from 
his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing 
living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime 
and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and 
day and night shall not cease." — Genesis 8:21, 22. 

"And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon 
it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God 
and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth." 
— Genesis 9 : 16. 



I 



"When the fig-tree puts forth leaves." — Matthew 24:32. 
Or, "When the wild crab-apple puts forth blossoms." — 
Author's Revised Version. 

IF we were dwellers In Palestine we would 
stand where Jesus stood and watch the un- 
folding of the draperies of the fig tree. 
Being dwellers elsewhere, but with the same 
spirit, we stand entranced by the beauties of 
this land, and in the presence of the spirit of 
the springtime our hearts are filled with praise 
to God. There is an epidemic abroad in our 
land; I know not how many victims, but they 
are legion; and if our prayers are offered for 
the ceasing of the epidemic of foul disease 
which ravages and kills, I pray for the spread 
of this epidemic until every one has become its 
victim; and as a result of this fever there is 
prayer and worship and praise to God, the 
Builder of the world. 

It is an epidemic of spring-fever, and a thor- 
oughly inoculated victim stands before you. 
21 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



Perhaps some of you will think you hear the 
ravings of a disordered brain. My thought, 
expressed with all gentleness, is that the ailment, 
the disorder, is in the brain of the man who 
can walk abroad at this season of the year and 
not be bewitched by the ravishing enticements 
of Nature. 

There is no calendar able to tell when spring 
will come any more than it can tell when the 
measles will come. In both cases the fevers are 
catching and are known by their fruits. A man 
who is interested enough to know one season 
from another, and to whom it makes any dif- 
ference when spring does come, will have no 
difficulty in telling. The evidences are within 
him. 

Spring-fever is as definite a disease as mea- 
sles and much more pleasant. I have had both, 
and speak from experience. As with bodily ills, 
this fever may not manifest itself at the same 
time to all its victims. Some catch it rather 
late in the season; but if so, they miss some of 
the delightful preliminary stages. It is of these 
early symptoms that I speak first. 

As a boy, when the fever came on, I made 
22 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



whistles from slender willows, vented my spirits 
by blasts long and loud that would send the 
blue jays scurrying from the crab-apple thicket 
with wild cries of alarm, and I cunningly noted 




WILD CRAB-APPLE BLOSSOMS 



the tallest of the willow-shoots and carefully 
spared it for another day. But already in imag- 
ination, I saw it bending from the frantic en- 
deavors of a minnow — or "shiner," in boy lan- 
guage — to run away with my bobber. If I were 
a woman it would manifest itself in numberless 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



plans for assaults upon the dust that had ac- 
cumulated during the winter months. Being a 
man, and therefore not compelled to "ask ma 
whether I can go a-fishin','' or to ask my hus- 
band whether I may clean house, with his as- 
sistance on the carpets, with light heart and im- 
patient mood I wait for the first robin, then 
blithely snatch my cap and start for — Oh ! any- 
where, away from houses and folks. 

The robin is the harbinger of spring and the 
forerunner of spring-fever, and therefore I seek 
first for him. The robin is a gallant gentleman 
(indeed, most birds are) and does not ask the 
lady to come north until he has explored the 
land. I admire the robin's manner. He has 
a jaunty way which leads us to believe that he 
knows spring is on the way. And he is so pert 
when he drops down upon the elm branch and 
carelessly sings, "Wake up; wake up! Spring 
is coming, coming, coming," we can scarcely 
believe that he has made a long journey to 
bring us this glad news. He knows from ex- 
perience that there will be blustery days and ice 
and snow; but he refuses to be dismayed or 
frightened, and sings his roundelay so merrily, 
24 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



"Cheer up; cheer up! Spring is coming, com- 
ing, coming," that he makes the words bubble 
to my lips, "Cheer up; cheer up! What does 
blustery weather amount to, anyhow?" 

I thank God for the robin in the early spring; 
and driven by the spring-fever, I go abroad to 
look for the bluebird. It has been banished 
from our yards and bird-boxes by the ill-man- 
nered English sparrow, but it has a cheerful 
way of doing the best it can under the circum- 
stances. Not being wanted about our homes, 
it has taken to the fields and fence-posts. Out 
in the country I find it. This winged comrade 
of mine carries the blue of the sky upon its 
back; tinted, we may easily imagine as it has 
made its way through the blue sky from the 
distant South; and it has painted its breast from 
the same terra-cotta jar the robin used. And 
there are the meadow-larks, bearing the yellow 
of the dandelions upon their throats, and the 
wild ducks circling about the ponds, and the 
song sparrow announcing its arrival from the 
topmost twig of the pussy willow. 

On a southern slope I bask in the sun and 
watch the mud turtles crawling out of the cold 
25 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



waters onto an old log, that they too may bask 
in the sun. They remind me of the village 
street-corner where men are basking on dry- 
goods boxes or lazily leaning against the warm 
side of buildings. Work does not suffer at their 
hands, either men or turtles ; but probably noth- 
ing else will. I pick up a turtle as it is crawl- 
ing to another pond, and note the picture on 
the under shell, and the brilliant lines of red 
and yellow, and marvel at the generosity of 
God in dealing out the beautiful colors to the 
humblest creatures. How is the turtle able to 
find its way from pond to pond without com- 
pass and without getting lost? It may satisfy 
some to say that God created the creature that 
way, which is true; but others will ask how it 
has been done, and in what way do these powers 
manifest themselves; and they add to the 
world's store of knowledge through this spirit 
of investigation. 

Driven by the frenzy of this early spring- 
fever, I am searching for the first flowers: in 
the marshy land the brown pod of the skunk 
cabbage, encasing a thick head bearing numer- 
ous tiny blossoms, crowds through the earth, 
26 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



preceding the huge heart-shaped leaves; and 
the marsh marigold with its cluster of kidney- 
shaped leaves and loved by country folk for 
"greens," opens many tufts of golden flowers. 
On the rocky bluffs are the hepaticas, delicate 
blossoms of varying tints of white and pink and 
purple; in the thicket along the old rail-fence, 
the bloodroot, as delicate as an invalid maid; 
in the woods, the anemones and spring beauty; 
on the gravel-bank, the windflower, anemone 
too, but wearing its name gracefully as it sways 
in the breeze. And while the search continues, 
new ones are coming on : buttercups and violets 
and trilliums and adder's tongues ; and the pro- 
cession seems endless and is endless. As we 
watch them pass we give our word of praise 
to the early blossoms that have pushed their 
way through the cold ground and dead leaves, 
and have defied the chilling winds and flurries 
of snow. And we give a word of praise to 
God, who has made the blossoms and who has 
sent us abroad this day. 

Spring is coming, always coming. The spirit 
of adventure is in the air; and as one gets in 
touch with the great world about him, the spirit 
27 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



of adventure — to dare and to do — takes pos- 
session of a man, and he is more of a man than 
when he grabbed his hat and started afield at 
the call of the robin and the spring-fever. The 
fever ebbs and flows, but is so pronounced this 
May day that we must go abroad again, for- 
getting, if we can, these pews and walls and 
vaulted arches, and seeing rather the aisles and 
arches of the leafy temples of the forest. 

When the wild crab-apple puts forth blos- 
soms the trees are in various stages of robing 
themselves for the summer's journey. Some 
seem to have forgotten the call of May, the 
branches are so bare and ungainly. Others have 
lately aroused, and now a delicate pink blush 
suffuses the more tardy oaks, while others are 
putting on a dress of yellow-green; and almost 
while we look we can see the yellow fading into 
deeper green. When the wild crab-apple puts 
forth blossoms it is helping to adorn the woods 
as the streets of the city are decorated for some 
festive occasion. The thorn-apple assists with 
blossoms of snowy whiteness, and blossoms so 
numerous that one would fain believe some lin- 
gering gust of winter day had whirled a million 
28 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



snowflakes about the tree; and the redbud or 
Judas tree, unwilling to be outdone, not wait- 
ing for the leaves to unfurl, arrays itself in tints 
of reddish-purple. 

But the wild crab is not satisfied with one 
tone, however handsome it may be. It paints 
the flower-leaves with white and pearl and pink 
and red in such exquisite shadings, and sub- 
merges them all in such a sea of perfume, 
through which one wades, by which one is 
drenched, as he comes near to the color-display, 
that he is intoxicated by the very beauty, the 
very fragrance. And the flowers, more modest 
in stature than the trees but more persistently 
numerous, are adding beauty and grace and life 
to the scene; anemones and shooting-stars, puc- 
coon and phlox and columbine, colored pink and 
white and red and yellow are lending variety 
and gayety to the landscape. When the wild 
crab-apple puts forth blossoms, the birds are 
trooping through its branches, trooping through 
the forests. Describe them? Why, if one 
were to gather great handfuls of dandelion 
blossoms and bluebells and tulips and wake- 
robins, and throw them hither and thither 
29 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



among the branches, he would not add new or 
more color than is already there because the 
birds are there: grosbeak and tanager, towhee 
and wood thrush, and warblers with yellow and 
red and black, with blue and white, with orange 
as bright as morning-dawn, with brown as deep 
as chestnut-stain. 

Perhaps now that the wild crab-apple has put 
forth blossoms, the spring-fever is at its height, 
and bewildered and delirious the victim throws 
himself beneath its branches and scarcely 
breathes as he listens to the avian May festival. 
It is morning. During the night the carpet of 
green has been washed by the falling rain, and 
now it is vivid in brightness of green, set with 
limpid drops of water shining like silvery jewels. 
About him and overhead the trees are breaking 
the sunlight into flecks and scattering them on 
the ground. Behind him the brook is dancing 
down the riffles, playing with pebbles, working 
itself into foamed frenzy as it uselessly beats 
against the rough-shouldered boulder, tossing 
some stray leaf as the waves of the sea toss the 
fisherman's boat, and the music of the water is 
throbbing in the background. The oriole is the 
30 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



master of ceremonies, and while his orange-and- 
black cap and robe flash among the branches he 
mounts a twig and gives the trumpet-call to 
song. The soloists respond : the catbird from 
yonder thicket of thorny gooseberries, the wood 
thrush hiding behind the hazel-brush, the rose- 
ate grosbeak from the willow, the brown 
thrasher from the swaying elm; and there are 
the choruses, the gurgling notes of blackbirds, 
the batlike notes of goldfinches, the silvery- 
belled notes of bobolinks, and the choruses of 
warblers with dripping tones falling from the 
leafy foliage as thickly as the great drops of 
rain that fall like tinkling bells on the leaves 
of the trees. And the music is not sweeter and 
more resplendent than the robes they wear. 

After a time he may stagger to his feet, may 
make his way homeward; but I mistake if there 
has not crowded in upon him the sense of over- 
whelming, abounding life. The streams are 
leaping with the accumulated energy of winter, 
and the banks will hardly contain the whirling, 
swerving waters. The trees seem full to over- 
flowing with life, so superabundant it must find 
a way out through twig and leaf. The birds 
31 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



are full to overflowing with life; it must find a 
way out through quiver of wing and flitting of 
tail, and swelling throats that can not hold all 
the music and rhapsody contained — it spills out 
like bubbling waters from the spring. I mis- 
take if one does not return in religious mood 
with an overwhelming sense of the nearness of 
God, the energy of God, the activity of God. 
All that God is doing is so fertile, so produc- 
tive, so growing, so bubbling over with life; 
God is so near, so present, so crowding into all 
things He has made and through all things He 
has made, that instinctively I find myself rec- 
ognizing Him in my life, feeling that He be- 
longs in my life, acknowledging Him as my 
Maker and Keeper and Master. 

I can see how some might not be brought 
to religious mood in the summer time when the 
sun burns with fiery rays, and the heat is op- 
pressive, and the dry dust stifles the nostrils, 
though there is evidence enough here of God 
for those who are not so easily disturbed by 
these superficials. I can see how some might 
not be made religious by the autumn when the 
sky is drear with cloud and fog, and the shiver- 
32 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



ing wind pierces to the very marrow, and the 
fields are brown and the leaves are dead and 
the flowers are withered, killed by the frost. 
I can see how some might not be thrown into 
religious mood by the biting, stinging wind of 
winter that nips the cheek and nose, that drives 
the frost against the window-panes until we 
can not look out upon the abandoned world, 
that drives the snow in great banks across the 
streets and roads, and piles it about our doors 
so that we can scarcely plow our ways through 
and would fain sit by the fireside, though there 
is ecstasy enough in each of these seasons for 

. . . "him who in the love of Nature holds 
Communion with her visible forms;" . . . 

but it seems to me that a man is without mind 
and heart who is not moved to God in the 
spring time, when the wild crab-apple puts forth 
its blossoms and the redbud blooms by the 
swollen waters: mind given by God that a man 
may measure himself alongside of the abound- 
ing energy and life of God everywhere revealed 
in the spring time; mind given of God so that 
we are able to seek after Him and find Him 
and know Him and be grateful for His com- 
3 33 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



panionship; heart given of God that we may 
measure up toward the glory of things ; that we 
may be stirred to laughter, to ecstasy, to poetry, 
to music, to wonder, to worship; and that we 
may cry out, u O Mighty One, I have love for 
the world Thou hast made, and for Thee, the 
Maker of the world, love surpassing the love 
of man for woman." 

Nature is a revealer of God; and to the 
theologian who thinks his craft is the inter- 
preter of God and who scoffs at Nature's teach- 
ings or ignores them, I say that Nature is a 
better, more certain, more authoritative teacher 
of great principles of God than he is. I do 
not trust theology. Oh ! I trust my own ; for 
it is an honest attempt on my part to frame 
words that will tell of the relations existing or 
that might exist between my God and myself. 
Other theologians, professional or laymen, I 
assume, are equally honest; but they present 
such different ideas, I am confused by their en- 
deavors at times. How many pictures of the 
Madonna or the Christ there are ! what differ- 
ent interpretations there have been ! — and none 
has told the whole story, has given the per- 
34 



THE COMING OF SPRING 

feet likeness. I trust the love that is in the 
heart of the man who draws the portrait of 
God; yes, I will trust the love that is in the 
heart of the pagan; but I do not fully trust 




THE REDBUD BLOOMS BY THE SWOLLEN 
WATERS 



his judgment, his knowledge. I do not impute 
the motive, I impute the results that spring 
from imperfect knowledge. 

What blunders and crimes have been com- 
mitted in the name of theology! Folks have 

35 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



mutilated their bodies by rites of circumcision 
until they could not defend their firesides. Chil- 
dren have been offered in sacrifice to the leap- 
ing flames or the greedy waters. Man by pre- 
destination has been robbed of his chance to 
make his peace with God; and babes snatched 
from their mothers' arms in all the sweetness 
and innocence and helplessness of babyhood, un- 
baptized, have been committed to the world of 
lost spirits. What crimes have been committed 
in the name of the Church ! The Sanhedrin is- 
sued its decrees against Jesus and sent Him to 
the cross; Diana's followers cried out against 
the Christians of their day and mobbed them; 
the Pope of the Roman Church has anathema- 
tized men, and that Church has passed sentence 
of death upon many; the Puritans, ushering in 
a new and better reign of morality, issued their 
decrees against the Quakers and persecuted 
them; the Episcopalians ridiculed and opposed 
the work of the Methodists in their early day, 
and the Methodists ridiculed and opposed the 
work of the Salvation Army in its early day. 

This is no argument against God: it is an 
argument against the imputed perfect wisdom 
36 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



of man. It is no argument against the Church 
or theology : it is an argument against the wrong 
use and arrogant claims of these. A razor is es- 
sential for the happiness and pleasing appear- 
ance of man : but suicides have been committed 
with it. Gas is a blessing in the lighting of our 
homes and preparing of our meals: but it has 
destroyed the food and burned the house when 
improperly used. The theologian and the 
Church are necessary for the advancement of 
the Kingdom of Christ in the hearts of men : 
but they have missed their calling at times. 
Galileo was a helpful man, fighting God's bat- 
tles for truth in the human mind: but he was 
woefully misunderstood and abused by the the- 
ologians of his day. God has been misrepre- 
sented and His cause has run with lame and 
halting feet because of imperfect man, some- 
times ignorant, sometimes overzealous, and 
sometimes cruelly ambitious and selfish. 

Theology is not the speaking of God to man, 
though it is often so understood. The Bible is 
God speaking to man, the Holy Spirit is God 
speaking to man, conscience is God speaking to 
man, nature is God speaking to man; theology 
37 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



is man talking about God, speculating about 
God; and because man is imperfect and igno- 
rant it is mistaken and imperfect, and will 
change and continue to change as the mingled 
dawn and dark of the morning twilight change 
into the perfect day. Let us be grateful for 
every honest endeavor of man to learn about 
God, and to tell us with all the wisdom of mind 
and fervor of heart he possesses about God; but 
let him not endeavor to supplant other sources 
of knowledge concerning God with the the- 
ology he has built, however helpful it may be. 

When the wild crab-apple puts forth blossoms 
the world is revealing God as mighty Creator. 
It is saying what it has said every day since it 
came into being, "In the beginning, God." In 
the midst of the changing, building, growing 
world a man is transported to those first days 
sketched and outlined on the first pages of the 
Bible. He sees the building of the heavens, the 
building of the sun, the building of the earth, 
the finishing of the earth as the carpenter fin- 
ishes the dwelling-house, until there are land 
and sea, mountains and valleys, forests and 
plains, waving grass and waving fronds of ferns 
38 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



and waving branches of palm trees, and animals 
that creep and fly and run; and he, amazed 
and dumb and awe-stricken in the presence of 
it, sees God, the mighty God, the Master- 
Builder. He reads, "God made every tree to 
grow," and as he sees the springing trees put- 
ting forth leafage and blossoms and fruit he 
bows to God, the mighty God. If he listens 
too much to the word of some man he may 
shut his eyes and say that after God worked 
for a few days He rested; He finished the world, 
He started it going, and then went away and 
has never come back to look after it. But if 
he is a wise man, when the wild crab-apple puts 
forth blossoms he will make it a visit, will look 
at the growing trees, swelling waters, flitting 
birds, blossoming flowers, humming bees; and 
as he sees these things coming into being, and 
growing into larger being, again will he be 
amazed and dumb and awe-stricken, and in the 
presence of it he will see God, the mighty God, 
the PRESENT Master-Builder. 

Nature shows that God is at work NOW. 
He works nights as well as days, Sundays as 
well as week-days. There is as much rain and 
39 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



sunshine and singing of birds and building of 
their nests while we worship as while we toil in 
the shop or field. And have you not heard 
the corn growing during the night? and have 
you not seen the leaves unfurled with the com- 
ing of the dawn as banners are unfurled by the 
breeze? Here is no excuse for man. Here is 
no argument against the Sabbath day or the 
eight-hour law. Man is not built on a twenty- 
four-hour schedule or a seven-day-a-week plan. 
He needs a portion of the day for other work 
than his regular job : for the home, society, self- 
improvement. He needs the Sabbath for rest 
and worship, the reading and study of the Bible, 
more uninterrupted communion with God, at- 
tendance upon church-services, doing of acts of 
mercy. If man finds his highest joy in jaunts 
to parks and out-of-door pleasures, then he is 
merely an animal, a beast of the field. 

But nature is not an end in itself, is not the 
highest aim of man: it is the revealer of God; 
and it shows Him always interested, always 
present with and always caring for the things 
He has made. It denies that He is dead or 
sleeping or gone upon a journey. If my heart 
40 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



aches because of the burdens and disappoint- 
ments of life, as I look upon Him busied with 
His creatures, He comes into my heart 

"With a mild and healing sympathy, that steals away 
Its sharpness, ere I am aware." 

Yes, the Lord rested then, and He rests now; 
His strength is so boundless, His burden is so 
light, there is such joy in His labor, such cer- 
tainty of the perfect work that shall one day 
have proceeded forth from His hands. As I 
see Him in His world I cry out in wonder: 
"O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In 
wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is 
full of Thy riches." 

Nature suggests and proves God. I know 
some of the technical playing with words by 
which philosophers may confuse us and assert 
that it is impossible to prove God. Maybe so; 
but I know the satisfaction of my own mind 
and heart that can not be taken away with 
technical subterfuges. I speak to the common, 
hard-thinking man, and say that Nature will 
strongly argue for God and prove God. Here 
is revealed matchless comprehension that runs 
41 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



into perfect wisdom. I am sure this is God's 
world; there is so much of it. 

There was a time when I might have named 
several hundred plants growing about here, giv- 
ing common and scientific names; but most of 
the names have gone and many of the faces 
have become strangers to me, so that I do not 
recognize those that once were friends, when 
I meet them in the woodland or meadow or 
marsh. My mind is so small and feeble that 
other things coming in have demanded and have 
taken the room. Now assume what has never 
existed : a human brain big enough to carry all 
the names of all the plants that grow in every 
corner of the world, and to know something of 
their habits and their processes of growth; it 
would be in dense ignorance of other depart- 
ments of thought and knowledge. But a human 
brain does not exist big enough so that we would 
think of imputing comprehension to it even of 
the plant-world. It may be suggestive of such 
a brain, but nothing more; it may bear resem- 
blance to a brain mighty enough to comprehend 
all things, as the brain of a babe that has grown 
enough so that it recognizes its mother's face 
42 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



bears resemblance to the brain of a Blaine or a 
La Follette who recognizes the faces of count- 
less people. But as I look upon this world I 
say that who is Creator of it must have a mind 
big enough to number and name all the stars 
and flowers and beetles and birds and all things 
that are made, and not only to name them but 
to know about them, whence they came, how 
they live and grow and multiply, and whither 
they are going. I am in the presence of Match- 
less Comprehension, I am in the presence of 
God. 

I am sure this is God's world because of the 
Skill displayed in it. Now, I am not ignorant 
of man's devices; I glory in his progress, and 
I believe that he will go on to the heights as 
he learns more of God and His world; but 
how bungling in comparison with the skill dis- 
played by God in the world He has made. 
Only this week I marveled at man's inventive- 
ness displayed by the welcome given to the com- 
mander of our battleships by the fleet which 
awaited him, having been warned of his com- 
ing by the weird power of wireless telegraphy. 
And yet, how complicated it is ! The operator 
43 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



must be on duty; must have his equipment 
properly, skillfully adjusted (how easily it gets 
out of order!) ; must catch the waves of ether 
and translate them into language and transmit 
them to proper authorities. These, in turn, 
must issue orders, must have certain sign-flags 
hung out ; they must be seen by the lookouts on 
other ships, and translated and reported to the 
officers, who in turn must issue orders. Finally, 
and it is wonderful, the fleet is deployed to wel- 
come the vessel of the commander who tele- 
graphed his coming. But how bungling in 
comparison with the flocks of birds God has 
made, who somehow can instantaneously com- 
municate their thoughts from leader to every 
bird in the great flock, so that every order is 
executed in faultless fashion. The phonograph, 
marking one of man's great achievements, is a 
wonderful instrument, catching, making im- 
pressions of, giving forth again the sounds as 
they have come to it from human throat; but 
who would think of comparing it to the catbird 
that God has made with mechanism so delicate, 
and what is much more, with spirit so exuberant 
and overflowing that it mounts the bush and fills 
44 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



the air with its perfect sweetness. The printing- 
press, taking the raw, blank paper and giving 
it forth printed and folded and bound, is a won- 
derful mechanism; but how crude as compared 
to the living organism with lungs and heart, 
with brain and sensory organs. I do not de- 
grade man: he has done marvelous things; but 
I exalt God, the Maker of man and Inspirer of 
man and all that is. 

I am -sure of God because of life and growth. 
In the presence of these we are in utter igno- 
rance. Oh ! we can tell something of the ap- 
pearance, the conduct, the manners of life and 
growth; but in their finalities they are utterly 
nonunderstandable. Now, if we knew all of the 
processes of life and in what fashion it came 
to be, we should not eliminate God as Creator: 
we would simply understand a little better how 
He did things; they betray a superhuman 
Power. As I stand In the presence of these 
things and see the ebbing and swelling of life 
and other forms of Nature's display, and see 
in them the eternal, immutable God, and recog- 
nize my relationship to Him, eternity and im- 
mortality become more certain and more real. 
45 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



The eternal God is the beginning and the end 
of all things; the world is growing up to the 
goal which He has planned for it; the eternal 
God is the goal of man; toward Him we aspire, 
toward Him we run or climb. This world with 
all that it contains, and man with all his powers 
endowed to have dominion over the world, is an 
evidence of God's purpose and love. 

So, this May day, as I look at the beauty of 
the crab-apple blossoms that adorn these tables 
in the sanctuary, and as I revel in the fragrance 
that comes from these dainty blossoms and per- 
meates this temple like the incense of old, I 
praise God for the world He has made and 
beautified and adorned with flower and 'bird, 
and I thank Him for the love He bears the 
children of men as shown in providing them 
with this wonderful home, and I thank Him for 
the Christ, the Son of God, who came with 
abounding life, perfect life, and matchless love, 
that He might find us and show us the way to 
knowledge of God and faith and trust and 
companionship. When I stand in the midst of 
the wild crab-apple blossoms I do not stand 
alone. Nearer than the color and fragrance of 
46 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



the flowers, "nearer than breathing, nearer than 
hands and feet," is my blessed Master, my 
Christ who walks abroad with me and helps 
me to know the world and love the world; for 
it is His and I am His, and He is mine. 



47 



II 

NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF 
JOB 



4 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. 
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness 
was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved 
upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be 
light: and there was light. And God saw the light that it 
was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the 
waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And 
God made the firmament, and divided the waters which 
were under the firmament from the waters which were 
above the firmament: and it was so. And God said, Let the 
waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, 
and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God said, 
Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and 
the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in 
itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And God said, Let us 
make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them 
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the 
air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every 
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created 
man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; 
male and female created He them. And God blessed them, 
and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and re- 
plenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the 
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every 
living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Be- 
hold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is 
upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which 
is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for 
meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of 
the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 
wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for 
meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that He had 
made, and, behold, it was very good." — Genesis i. 



II 



"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the 
earth?" — Job 38:4. 

GOD is spokesman, Job is listener, and 
the text is from a dialogue in the Book 
of Job, with God and man as speakers. 
This is one of the great books of the Bible. 
If the novelist tells us that the essentials of a 
good story are a distinguished hero, plenty of 
excitement, difficulty and uncertainty, and a suc- 
cessful termination of the hero's career, the con- 
ditions are here fulfilled. As literature, this 
drama with its choice language and stirring ac- 
tion is worthy of a place among the world's 
notable writings, for it deals with the deepest 
issues of life. And the man who is concerned 
about the relationship that exists or ought to 
exist between God and man finds here much 
food for thought. As a story, as literature, as 
philosophy, as a religious work, it is a great 
book, worthy of the place it occupies in the 
"Book of books." 

51 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

But it has not held and does not hold Its 
place without contention and debate. With the 
possible exception of the Book of Jonah, there 
is perhaps no other in the Bible that has been 
the center of such bitter discussion, the subject 
of so many harsh accusations. It reminds me 
of some mighty rock along the North Atlantic 
Coast. Standing on the shore-line with crags 
and woods behind it, thrusting defiantly into the 
ocean, rearing its majestic form above land and 
sea, it might be such a scene of beauty, it might 
inspire such repose and peace. But this is al- 
ways denied by the surrounding elements. 
Often the clouds gather about its brow, and 
break in snow or rain, and the fog seems always 
there. If there are moments when the fog is 
lifting and the sun is about to enkindle the place 
with its brightness, the fog gathers again, more 
densely than before, and comes rolling in to 
obscure the view. Often the fierce winds drive 
across the seas, and the huge waves, sullen, gray 
and somber, smite against the rock with blows 
of Titan's fists. And always the rough waters 
are growling and gnawing at the rock's foun- 
dation. And one hears the poet's word: 
52 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 



"Break, break, break 

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea ! 
But the tender grace of a day that is dead 
Will never come back to me." 

The day is dead because of cloud and fog and 
wind and wave. So for many generations this 
book has been the center of acrimonious debate, 
the subject of bitter attacks, of heated contro- 
versy, and has been wrapped in fogs of obscure 
and involved meaning. Its right to a place in 
the Bible has been denied. The argument is 
something like this : Job was not a Jew. He 
lived in the land of Uz, lying somewhere to 
the southeast of Palestine, and was perhaps a 
Sabean or Chaldean. Now, the Bible, or the 
Old Testament particularly, is a history of God's 
dealings with the Jews. They are His chosen 
people, and it is the baldest effrontery for any- 
body not a Jew to have a place claimed for him 
in that Book. 

It is the same argument to which we have 
been listening during these recent days. Word 
has gone out that President Taft expects to ap- 
point a certain Boston lawyer as one of the 
Federal attorneys. Immediately there is a pro- 
test, but not against the man's ability. He is 
53 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

amply proficient in his profession; he will be 
able to safeguard the Government's interests as 
entrusted to him, with credit. His reputation 
is unsullied. He is an honorable man. Why 
then the protest? "Why, he is a black man, 
and black men have no right to know law and 
have brains and be honorable. These distinc- 
tions God has given to the white race, and the 
black man is a usurper and an intruder." Now, 
if the argument is sound, of course the same 
reasoning will eliminate the Book of Job from 
the Old Testament; but if ability is to be the 
measure of a man's rank, and if every man is 
to have a chance to show his worth and ability, 
and if the Bible is true in declaring that "God 
is no respecter of persons," and Jesus true when 
He insisted that the children of Abraham are 
measured not by ties of flesh and blood, but 
rather by obedience and service, — then this book 
with its lofty religious note and with its hero, 
a God-fearing man, is worthy of the place it 
occupies. 

Again, there has been and is bitter disputing 
as to whether Job is a real character. Some 
insist that he was an actual man, while others 
54 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

with equal vehemence insist that the book is a 
story and that Job is a fictitious character. 
Around this question, what a storm has pre- 
vailed! On the one hand the Churchman has 
assured us that unless we can substantiate the 
position that Job is a real man, the Church is 
doomed. Let me state the position strongly 
and baldly, that we may see it clearly. "If 
Job was not a real man the Bible can not be 
trusted, for it so represented him; and if the 
Bible can not be trusted at one point it can 
not be at any point; and if the Bible is un- 
authentic we have no record of God, and we 
are living in densest ignorance, with the Church 
and Kingdom built upon the sand and doomed 
to fall." On the other hand we are told that 
"nobody with intelligence believes that Job was 
a real man. It is an oriental story, with all 
the embellishments of the eastern writers, and 
just a little thought and study and investigation 
would satisfy any one that this is so. Why, 
for anybody to believe that Job actually lived, 
in this day of modern knowledge, shows a lack 
of brains." And this is very distressing to some 
of us who believe that Job actually lived, or at 
55 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 



least may have lived, in outline as the book sug- 
gests. Our conceit is disturbed when we are 
accused of ignorance because we hold a differ- 
ent theory from some other man. Here again 
the battle is mainly between straw-men, and the 
worthy point of consideration is being over- 
looked. 

After all, it does not matter whether such 
a man lived ages ago. Make that man unique 
or shut him away from our day, and we have 
no interest in him. Our interest is in the men 
of our day. And the preacher can tell you that 
in his parish Job is not a fictitious character; 
he can tell you of men and women whose mis- 
fortunes may not have been of the same name 
but of the same kind, misfortunes so keen and 
overwhelming as to try the very foundations 
of the soul. And the question with which we 
are concerned is this : When a man is so shaken, 
is God near enough and accessible enough so 
that it is possible for the man in his bitterness 
to find Him, so that he will not suffer ship- 
wreck? The storms about this book are man- 
made and of little account. The mighty truths 
of God are upon its pages. 

56 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

This book has been studied by eminent schol- 
ars, it has been variously interpreted from many 
viewpoints, each school of theology has been 
able to find vindication on its pages. While the 
discussion is going on, and while our friends are 
arriving at some unanimous verdict, let me give 
you an interpretation this morning that is plain, 
simple, practical and., I trust, helpful. If it is 
not the common interpretation, I appeal to you 
as to a jury whether it is not a reasonable one 
and whether a re-reading of the book will not 
convince you of its credence. 

Broadly speaking, the book divides itself into 
three parts. The first represents the afflictions 
of the man : lightning scatters the flock, the 
enemy destroys the property, death removes the 
children, and the heart of Job is filled with sor- 
row and questioning and despair and bitterness. 
The second part represents the visitation of 
three friends, perhaps a Church committee, 
who have heard of the grief of Job and have 
come to console him. Whether a formal 
Church committee or not, they come with the 
beliefs of the Church of their day. They are 
the theologians of their time. But their visit 
57 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

is fruitless and injurious. Each one states his 
conviction, but these convictions do not agree, 
and Job is only puzzled and confused by their 
endeavors. Moreover, it is one man's opinion 
against another's ; and when one of them slaps 
Job in the face by accusing him of being a 
sinner, a very wicked man, Job strikes back, 
and the result of the interview is to make Job 
more bitter and angry and resentful. Then an- 
other man appears, and I think of him as one 
of the shepherds of Job perhaps, who had 
watched his flocks in the surrounding fields ajid 
there had learned the ways of God. At the 
first he offers his own ideas to Job, as the others 
had done, and it has the same effect upon Job 
apparently. Then he directs the attention of 
Job to God's world of Nature about him, and 
retires from the scene. 

The third part represents God and Job face 
to face in the world. Job is contemplating Na- 
ture. He sees now the things at hand, and 
thinks about them : the cloud and rain and 
snow; the frost and ice; the stars and constella- 
tions in the sky above. He sees now with new 
meaning the greater world in which he lives. 
58 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

In yonder places he sees the ostrich which buries 
its eggs in the sand and allows the heat of the 
sun-warmed sand to hatch them while it runs 
footraces with the Arab of the desert, and thus 
entices the horseman from its nest, because God 
has taught it so much. He sees with new mean- 
ing the behemoth or hippopotamus, strong and 
fearless, with bones like iron because God has 
made it so. He sees now the leviathan or croco- 
dile with its fiery eyes and scaled sides, proof 
against man's weapons, and with marvelous 
speed as it travels the waters. And as Job con- 
templates these wonders of Nature he learns 
as he had never learned from human lips the 
plan and purpose and ability of God; he sees 
obedience everywhere, everywhere. Then, too, 
God has a purpose and plan for him, and God 
is able to accomplish that purpose; then he will 
be obedient and submissive to God in every- 
thing. And as in obedient spirit he bows be- 
fore God, resignation and peace and prosperity 
await him. Job is saved from his temptation 
and despair by his contemplation of Nature. 
Job is not unique. His experience may be the 
experience of the man of our day. 

59 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

This world is full of marvelous things. The 
wonders of Nature are everywhere about us, 
fortunately available to every man. People 
travel far and wide to see Nature's displays: 
the Niagara Falls, Yellowstone National Park, 
Garden of the Gods, the Alps in Switzerland, 
the Rhine in Germany, the Italian skies, Scot- 
land's lochs, and Norway's firths. For those 
who are able, it is commendable, but is chiefly 
necessary because these travelers usually take 
off their "seeing" glasses when they return to 
their homes. One does not need to go abroad 
to be overwhelmed by the majesty of Nature. 
The man tracking the plow in the field or driv- 
ing the cows to pasture is in the very midst of 
Nature's supreme efforts. The man who walks 
the hard pavement of the city has the universe 
within his reach; and if he can only find a spot 
of sward upon which to plant his foot, will find 
beneath it such a collection of Nature's works 
as to afford him material for study and con- 
templation for all his days without exhausting 
its contents. Even the invalid confined to the 
room, through the open window by day can 
watch the ever-shifting clouds now piling them- 
60 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 



selves along the horizon like some great city 
of modern times or like the ruins of some an- 
cient one, and now a fleecy lightness and white- 
ness drifting lazily .across the sky, and again 




WONDERS OF NATURE ] 



like some great, dark battleships moving to war 
as they are driven madly by the wind. Or one 
may see the gorgeous sunset, when the western 
sky is belted with broad bands of rose and blue 
and purple and sapphire. And at night, 
through the same window, one can look into 
61 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

the heights of the sky and watch the great globe 
so thickly studded with stars and set with con- 
stellations slowly moving, ever moving with the 
earth in the center of it; or one may climb the 
heights and, as imagination runs riot, wonder 
as he gazes at the tiniest, farthest star whether 
if he should speed all his days as fast as man 
can go, whether some day he might reach that 
star and bring it to earth and put it in his box 
of playthings — and forget that it is already 
there. 

People came long distances to our city to 
see the wonderful flying-machine, and then were 
denied because the breeze blew. But the other 
day, while the wind in mad gusts swept the 
heavens, I looked far up and saw there a won- 
derful flying-machine — the red-shouldered hawk 
— sailing in majestic circles, holding steadily 
against the wind or easing away before it, with 
moving wing or with stationary wing, it did 
not matter. Here was perfect grace and per- 
fect rhythm and perfect freedom, for it was 
master of the sky and wind, and can be seen 
from your doorstep. And in the suburbs of the 
city I have watched great numbers of flying- 
62 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

machines — some species of plover, perchance— 
spring into the air, fly in quick circles, wheel 
short, swoop, speed away, alight only a few 
inches apart, and never a collision and never an 
accident; and this can be seen from the window 
of the street-car. Men will make long jour- 
neys to see the launching of a great ship, and 
watch with curiosity and breathless interest to 
see whether man's efforts will be successful. 
But the launching of a baby bird in your yard, 
when the time to leave the nest has come, is 
more fascinating, more wonderful, more cer- 
tain. Travelers go to the Nile to see the lotus- 
bloom and to catch its fragrance; but the 
marshes of our fields grow the white water-lily, 
as entrancing in beauty, as delicious in odor. 
The wonders of Nature are everywhere; they 
are here at hand, for the instruction of man 
concerning God. 

And they are in our presence ALL THE TIME. 
When the day is on, there is the bewitching 
tracery of foliage, there are flowers of innumer- 
able kinds and inexhaustible beauty, and the 
birds are about with the throats swelling with 
song. And when the night comes, the soft 
63 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

moonlight may chasten and subdue the earth, 
the stars look down in gentleness like the gentle 
eyes of kine. And if all alone, away from city's 
blare of trumpets, away from "the madding 
crowd," one may hear the music of the night — 
not the shriller note of cricket, not the louder, 
accidental note of some wandering bird, but the 
more quiet, subdued, insistent music of the 
night. When all is so still that the blood flow- 
ing about the ear seems to leap and dash like 
distant waterfall, then this music seems to ooze 
out of the very stars above and air about and 
soil beneath our feet. 

When the sun shines, the shadows are chas- 
ing one another in childish glee across the fields 
of billowing grain; or in the forest, the sun- 
light falls in scattered flakes upon the ground. 
When the day is dark one stands perhaps be- 
neath some woodland tree and listens to the 
music as the drops of rain come pattering down 
upon the leaves or drip from leafy stems, or 
hears the liquid globules of music as the great 
drops fall upon the face of the lingering pond 
of the creek, and sees the flower that has closed 
so that the rain shall not beat it in the face, 
64 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 



and sees some feathered forest-dweller hanging 
to the side of the tree beneath a limb and away 
from the storm, dry and cozy, fitting comrade 
for such a day. 

When winter comes and the leaves are fallen, 
the trees are at their best and display their true 
beauty, the oak so straight and sturdy and 
rugged and soldier-like, the elm so graceful and 
delicate and almost coy; and then the snow- 
storm, when the great flakes fall like autumn 
leaves, or when the fierce wind piles into fan- 
tastic shapes, and the buds containing leaf and 
flower and fruit for another year are tucked to 
bed to sleep throughout the winter, more dain- 
tily than any mother's hands ever tucked human 
babe away. And when the spring comes the 
wonders do not cease. The winter fumes and 
frets and ever keeps its face toward the south- 
land, and ever retreats with snarling lips to 
the northland. 

And the spring comes on, and the grass is 
growing and the flowers are blooming and the 
birds are singing; ah me! the wonders of spring 
time! And the spring has gone and the sum- 
mer has come, and we scarcely knew it; but the 
5 65 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

wonders have not ceased. And now the fields 
are waving with grain, and the orchard-boughs 
are bending with growing fruit, and the road- 
sides are resplendent with bloom; the summer 
is here, but the wonders have not ended. And 
the summer, almost before we know it, has 
faded into autumn, and the fields are mown, 
and the corn is rustling in the slightest breeze, 
and the cheeks of apples are painted with gaudy 
hues; for the wonders have not ceased. 

And it seems now, for autumn is here, as 
though there could not be a time of year when 
there were such wonders and so many wonders 
as now. The farmer makes his slow way along 
the rows of standing corn, and the thud of 
golden ears comes across the field, sweet music 
singing of God's bountifulness to the children 
of men. And the piles of ruddy apples 'neath 
barren trees is proof enough that God knew His 
business when He wrapped the buds in winter 
time and flung the leaves to the breezes in spring 
time and grew the fruit in summer time and 
brought it to its fulness in autumn time. And 
the gorgeous colors hang upon the trees as 
though, before God had stripped the branches 
66 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 



for future plans to be executed, He would leave 
with us a pleasant memory against the coming 
of the leaves again. 

How dare I speak of autumn glories? In the 
city of Chicago there is now a splendid art- 
exhibit. Masters of many nationalities are rep- 
resented, and there are some of their finest 
works, a galaxy of art showing the cunning of 
man's hands, the genius of man's brain, the 
warmth of man's heart. Any one having the 
opportunity would gladly see the splendid dis- 
play of paintings. But it was my privilege re- 
cently to see an exhibit of far-surpassing beauty. 
It was during the session of our Annual Con- 
ference. I enjoy the company of preachers and 
enjoy listening to their lectures and addresses 
and debates; but there was no time for that: 
there was too much work handling the benevo- 
lence money. But there was time enough to 
slip down to the bridge spanning Rock River 
for a few minutes, two or three times each day, 
and lose myself for that length of time in Na- 
ture's art gallery. As I stood, with arms on 
the railing of the bridge, forgetful of my sur- 
roundings, some passer-by may have thought 
67 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 



that I contemplated suicide. The only trouble 
with his thinking was that it was too slow. I 
had already ceased to realize my existence; I 
was swallowed up, was lost in the great world 
about me. 

But this was what I saw. There were many 
islands in the river carpeted with rich green 
grass, appearing like so many emeralds in a 
broad ribbon of silver. Man had thrown an 
obstruction across the river. But the waters, 
disdaining and scorning the hindrance, leaped 
across the barrier, throwing themselves trium- 
phantly into silver spray; or seizing upon the 
wandering rays of light, tore them into frag- 
ments and adorned the spray with the colors of 
the rainbow. On one bank near at hand was 
a mass of tangled bittersweet. Already the 
leaves, turned yellow, were sifting to the ground, 
detached by the slightest effort; but every fall- 
ing leaf but made more plain and more resplend- 
ent the berries that lingered. The frost had put 
its icy fingers upon the outer orange caskets, 
and these had opened and spread apart, show- 
ing the ruby-red berry within, bright as coral 
beads. On the other bank was a patch of 
68 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

sumach flaunting its flaming plumes of crimson 
leaves and garnet berries. Farther away sullen 
bluffs outcropped, and the banks and larger 
islands were covered with trees. Already the 
reds and browns and russets were creeping 
across the face of the foliage, but it was a few 
days too early to see these colors at their best. 
This was particularly an exhibit of yellows, and 
they were here of every shade and tint. The 
distance was such that one did not try to dis- 
tinguish the particular tree or bush or shape of 
leaf. It was sufficient to see the rich display of 
tints, and these were ever-changing. Every 
added visit revealed new beauties. The colors 
were becoming deeper and richer. There was 
no startling change, but as by the hand of man 
one stereopticon picture dissolves into another, 
so here by the matchless skill of God one pic- 
ture grew out of another; the green was dis- 
solving into yellow, the yellow into gold. It 
was evident that while I was away the Master- 
Painter was not away, but was busy with paints, 
changing, enriching, and adding new beauty to 
the scene. And the flood of light from noon- 
day sun, the slanting rays of twilight sun, the 
69 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 



dullness of hazy day, the calmness of quiet air, 
the stirring of breeze upon leaf and river made 
even more changing an ever-changing pano- 
rama. 

"Well, what has all this to do with the 
Church? What difference does it make to 
Christianity and noble character and to knowl- 
edge of God that leaves are green or red, and 
there are clouds in the sky, and flowers under 
foot? Of what use is Nature to the religious 
welfare of man?" My contention is that the 
contemplation of Nature was good for Job and 
gave him essential knowledge of God; and the 
contemplation of Nature is good for me and, I 
am sure, for any man with open eyes and sym- 
pathetic mind. 

Here is convincing proof of God's ABILITY. 
If God is able to number the stars, to marshal 
them into constellations, to lead them in troops 
across the sky, to sow them thick as snowflakes 
in the "milky way," and to keep them in their 
courses, then I do not doubt but that God is 
able to be Master of this human world, and to 
work His will, and to rule in the affairs of na- 
tions and cause them to do His bidding. And 
70 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

if sometimes the nation seems indisposed or un- 
concerned or "mindful of the things of low de- 
gree," I will not be cast down, for God is able. 
And if God can do so much with so little to 
do with, if God can with a tiny, insignificant 
acorn make the great oak with sturdy branches 
and abundant leafage and bounteous fruitage, 
causing that acorn to burst asunder its prison- 
house and to conquer every hindrance, then I 
do not doubt but that God is able to save the 
very lowest man, do not doubt that there is 
enough good even there, with God's help and 
support, to grow into a noble, useful life; and 
that, no matter what the prison-house may be, 
or what chains may bind or barriers intervene, 
there is hope for that man, and salvation is pos- 
sible : for God is able. 

Here, too, is convincing proof of God's pur- 
pose. Nature is not a world of chance or care- 
lessness or uselessness. Everything has its mis- 
sion. The very shape and color and fragrance 
of the flower are not accidental and do not re- 
veal mere passing whims of a Creator. Every- 
thing in Nature is significant and purposeful. 
And as one sees this and realizes this beyond 
71 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 



shadow of doubt, the conclusion is plain : there 
is some reason for my being, my existence. 
I am a part of God's world and of God's plan. 
And in proportion as my rank is high among 
God's creatures, so am I sure that that purpose 
is a worthy and fitting one. 

Here is example enough and proof enough 
as to the necessity of obedience to God. It is 
obedience everywhere. The mightiest sun, the 
tide of ocean, the blade of grass, the drop of 
dew, the mote that dances in streaming sunlight, 
reveal absolute obedience to the will of God. 
Here is law, majestic and unbroken. Here is 
respect for law, implicit and unquestioned. And 
here is argument and inspiration that man, mas- 
ter of his destiny, is doing the wise and neces- 
sary thing when he yields himself to the law and 
will of God. 

Above your desks on the office-wall or on the 
walls of your homes perhaps there are Roths- 
child's maxims, or other maxims, urging fru- 
gality, diligence, perseverance, cheerfulness, or 
other attributes that make for success and honor 
and happiness in life. God's maxims and mot- 
toes and sermons are printed upon every leaf 
72 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

and every flower and every cloud and every star. 
They are everywhere, and only the blind man 
or the perverted man can fail to read. Here 
is unquestionable proof for Bible texts. If 
Jesus commanded the disciples to gather up the 
crumbs after He had made loaves beyond com- 
pute, and so urged frugality, Nature is preach- 
ing the value of the fragments constantly, using 
the dead leaf to protect the living plant from 
the cold, using the dew to refresh the vegeta- 
tion. If the Bible insists that "whatsoever a 
man soweth, that shall he also reap," and man 
is always disputing it, Nature proves it beyond 
dispute. We can not gather "grapes from 
thorns or figs from thistles." The great prin- 
ciples of the religious life find in Nature proof 
or verification. It is God's world; and God, 
who laid the foundation of it in the beginning, 
is still laying the foundations and building the 
walls and adorning the rooms. Man is in it, 
but man need not be of it; and the question, 
sharp as any spear-point which God asked of 
Job, is asked of you this day, Where art thou 
when God is laying the foundations of the 
earth? 

73 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

While men might be learning about God from 
Nature, some of them are deliberately or igno- 
rantly destroying its wonders. At the close of 
the Annual Conference it was my privilege to 
visit my boyhood home and to drive over the 
road where as a boy I had walked out of the 
village to the country school, or to the woods 
where I spent many happy boyhood hours. 
There was a sadness to the day because of the 
changes that had been wrought. There had 
been a broad stone-fence made of shale-rock, 
and it had been one of our boyish tricks, bare- 
footed, to run along the top and balance our- 
selves as we ran ; and so we developed the cun- 
ning of the squirrel; here the woodchuck had 
its burrow, and as we ran and played it stood 
erect like a soldier and whistled, and then, like 
a coward, pitched headlong into its burrow. 
And here sometimes we saw the weasel, and in 
winter the dainty footprints of the deerfooted 
mouse. But the stone-fence had disappeared, 
and in its place was a barb-wire fence; for the 
stone wall took too much room. Another fur- 
row of ground must be turned, that a little more 
corn might be raised for the fattening of a few 
74 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

more hogs. And there had been a rail-fence, 
sprawling roomily along the road, clambered 
over with bittersweet and carrion-flower and 
leathery clematis; in the corners of it grew the 
hazel-brush and the wild roses, and there the 
bloodroot and yellow violet and adder's tongue 
bloomed; and the chipmunk with banded sides 
saucily ran along the rails, and the downy wood- 
pecker hunted for food as nonchalantly as 
though we were not in existence or — sly rascal — 
pretended to be hunting for food in the crannies 
of the rails; and once a little chickadee hol- 
lowed out a home in the heart of a rail, and 
there laid its delicately-spotted eggs and reared 
its young. The rail-fence taught us many of 
Nature's secrets, but it is gone now, and in its 
place a woven-wire fence. It took too much 
room. Two or three additional furrows of 
ground must be turned, that a little more corn 
might be raised for the fattening of a few more 
hogs. And there had been a hedge-fence of 
osage-orange trees. In the autumn we had 
gathered the yellow-green oranges as ornaments 
for the clock-shelf. Here, always, the brown 
thrasher nested, and the butcher bird and the 
75 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

robin and the catbird and the goldfinch. And 
in the winter the rabbit made its bunk in the 
long grass that grew unmolested among the 
trees. And I have sometimes caught the rabbit 
asleep, and with boyish shout leaped upon it, 
and watched it spring away with long leaps, 
frightened and ashamed that it had been thus 
surprised. The hedge-fence is gone now, and 
in its place there is nothing; for there must be 
more room for the growing of corn for the fat- 
tening of hogs. And there had been a wild 
crab-apple thicket, where the bluejays nested 
and scolded us and cried, "G'way, g'way!" In 
the spring the branches were festooned with 
pink and white, and the air was redolent with 
precious perfume, and in the autumn the ground 
was strewn with tantalizing fruit. During the 
summer, as we saw the growing apples, we 
planned to store them for the winter. But some- 
how we never did — after we tasted one. And 
there was a slough where the redwing black- 
birds nested, and where the booming bitterns 
reared their young, and where in the winter the 
rabbits bunked and the prairie-hens roosted. I 
haa flushed them by hundreds, or watched them 
76 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

walking on the snow and feeding on the scat- 
tered ears of corn that had been overlooked in 
husking-time. But all of this is changed now. 
The wild crabs are gone, and the slough is 




THE BOOMING BITTERNS REARED THEIR YOUNG 



drained, that a little more corn may be raised. 
We must be well-fed and grow fat ; but as prog- 
ress, agriculturally speaking, has slowly made 
its way across the land it has destroyed many 
things that fed the mind and heart. And I sub- 
mit that there is danger of our being so much 
77 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 



concerned about growing fat in body that we 
forget the needs of the mind and soul. 

If some men are destroyers, others are blind, 
walking in the midst of Nature's wonders, 
standing in the midst of Nature's truths, and not 
seeing. And this, I think, had been the fault 
of Job. Good man that he was, careful to 
make his sacrifices and concerned about the wel- 
fare of his children, still he had been unim- 
pressed by the great lessons taught by God's 
world. The servants had reported that there 
were seven thousand sheep; and Job said, "It 
has been a good year; there were but six thou- 
sand a year ago." They had said, "There are 
three thousand camels;" and he had said, "It is 
a good year; there were but two thousand a year 
ago." As though the goodness of a year and 
the worth of a year could be measured by the 
increase of the flocks or the possessions. Yet, 
how many are measuring life by such standards, 
counting life to consist of the "abundance of 
things it possesseth," remembering God perhaps 
for a few minutes on the Sabbath day, making 
sacrifices before the altar regularly perhaps, but 
78 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 



devoting the greater time to the things of the 
body; reading God's word on written page, and 
listening to the sermon as a message from God 
from the pulpit, and making confession of 
Christ, and then going out into God's world, 
where God's truth is written, and where God's 
sermons are preached, and where God is always 
present making it a holy world, and forgetting 
that it is God's world and that God is in it, 
and making it only a market-place, a feeding- 
place for swine, a place where the body is cared 
for, but where mind and heart are ignored? 

I do not plead for less observance of the 
Sabbath, and less regard for the Church and 
the Christ, and less time devoted to prayer and 
reading of Bible; but I do plead for such a 
recognition of this world as God's world and 
for such removal of blindness and for such de- 
sire for the enrichment of mind and the culti- 
vation of heart that every day shall be a holy 
day, that every hill shall be a temple, that every 
thing that is shall be a preacher of God's 
majesty and glory. Then will we be ever mind- 
ful of God's presence. Then shall come to pass 
79 



NATURE-INTERPRETATION OF JOB 

the saying that is written, "The mountains and 
the hills shall break forth before you into sing- 
ing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their 
hands : and it shall be to the Lord for a name, 
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut 
off." 



80 



Ill 



IMPOSSIBLE SONGS OF NATURE AND 
REDEMPTION 



6 



IMPOSSIBLE SONGS OF NATURE AND 
REDEMPTION 



"Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the 
heaven: praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him, all His 
angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts. Praise ye Him, sun and 
moon : praise Him, all ye stars of light. Praise Him, ye 
heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. 
Let them praise the name of the Lord : for He commanded, 
and they were created. He hath also established them for 
ever and ever: He hath made a decree which shall not pass. 
Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: 
fire, and hail ; snow, and vapors ; stormy wind fulfilling His 
word: mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: 
beasts, and all cattle ; creeping things, and flying fowl : kings 
of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the 
earth: both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: 
let them praise the name of the Lord: for His name alone is 
excellent ; His glory is above the earth and heaven. He also 
exalteth the horn of His people, the praise of all His saints; 
even of the children of Israel, a people near unto Him. 
Praise ye the Lord." — Psalm 148. 

"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither 
do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father 
feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which 
of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies 
of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they 
spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his 
glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God 
so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to- 
morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe 
you, O ye of little faith?" — Matthew 6:26-30. 

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of 
them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But 
the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not 
therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. 1 — Mat- 
thew 10:29-31. 



Ill 



"No man could learn that song." — Revelation 14:3. 

JOHN declares that there are songs beyond 
the power of man to sing, and songs which 
are possible only for the regenerate man. 
For the text, continued, reads, "No man could 
learn that song but the redeemed." It is not 
a distortion of the text, I am sure, to say that 
there are songs which only God can teach, and 
which therefore lead us directly and simply to 
see Him and worship Him. And I wish, this 
morning, that we might notice and might listen 
to the songs of Nature, the singing of the brook, 
the singing of the birds, the song of the night, 
and listen to the songs of the human heart, 
whose music has sweetened and cheered the 
world because God has caused it to be. 

John is no doubter of man's ability, is not 
seeking to discredit or belittle the possibilities 
or deeds of man. In this book he has written 
he speaks of the achievements of kings and na- 
83 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



tions, and declares that these are not ignored 
by God, but will be one of the possessions and 
appreciations of heaven. 

John is not challenging man's powers. There 
are pessimists enough in this world to do that, 
to declare that man has reached his limit, that 
there is no new thing under the sun, that man 
is like a ship with a broken rudder, drifting at 
the mercy of wind and tide. How often these 
gloomy orators are discomfited! These doubt- 
ers said that the ocean could not be crossed, 
that it would swallow its victims or hurl them 
over its straight-standing edge to destruction; 
and Columbus with puny ships and poor equip- 
ment and timid seamen, but boundless faith, 
put out to sea and proved that it could be done, 
and became the first naturalized American. 
These doubters said that ships could not be pro- 
pelled through the water, driven against wind 
and tide by steam; and Fulton proceeded to 
demonstrate that it could be done. Doubting 
ones from the time of Darius Green have ridi- 
culed the idea that the air could be navigated 
by men, and lo! while they sneer and scoff and 
speak of those who have died in the attempt, 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



Bleriot wings his way across the channel and 
drops down on English soil ; and Curtis and the 
Wright brothers come home from France with 
breasts covered with medals and pockets bulg- 




THE SINGING OF THE BROOK 



ing with money — visible proof of man's ability 
to do. While scoffers were saying that the 
north pole never could be reached, men of 
courage said that it could be done. And if one 
of our countrymen came back with the marks 
of fraud upon him, another returned — Peary, 
85 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



the American, lugging the north pole under 
his arm. The testimony of libraries and art- 
galleries, the biographies of men and nations, 
the echoes that are wafted from every age and 
come floating across the centuries unite in say- 
ing, "It can be done; it can be done." Man is 
so great, his achievements are so notable that 
it is hardly safe to say what he can not do. 
And sometimes in our pride or ignorance we 
feel that he can do everything, that he can sing 
every song. 

God must be proud of His children at times, 
Oh ! there are times enough when He has no 
occasion to be proud; when man is refusing to 
be great or to do the great things; when man 
is drunken, and manhood has been swallowed 
up in beastliness; when man is cruel and op- 
pressive, and brotherhood has been swallowed 
up in selfishness; when man is lustful and pro- 
fane, bitter and cynical, ignorant and indolent, 
squandering time and talent and opportunity. 
Oh ! then God is humiliated and disgraced. 
But when man is at his best, keen-eyed to see 
the task, strong-hearted to attempt the task, 
brawny-armed or brawny-brained to do the 
86 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



task, then God must be pleased with His chil- 
dren. For God wrote the problems and told 
men to solve them. God wrote the problem 
of the mighty sea, the frozen north, the shift- 
ing tide, the fickle air, wrote the problem con- 
taining an "X," an unknown quantity, and 
fired man's heart and brain with ambition to 
solve it. And man's part is to supply the miss- 
ing term, steam or electricity or gravitation, by 
discovery or invention. And when man shows 
shrewdness and brain-force and patience and 
perseverance and grit and energy and sacrifice 
to work the problem, God is surely pleased with 
him. 

And man ought to be grateful to God for 
problems to work and for talents to work with, 
for the development that comes with work; for 
without it muscles remain puny and flaccid, and 
brain remains in ignorance and impotence. He 
ought to be grateful for the teaching-ways of 
God, pointing, directing, suggesting, in the mo- 
ments of man's bewilderment so that he can 
prevail, can overcome. For man can not do 
these things without God's help, either to pro- 
vide the opportunity or to endow him with the 
87 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



talents, however undeveloped, with which it 
may be improved. And for very gratitude for 
these blessings man ought to be a Christian, 
ought to realize his dependence upon God, ac- 
knowledge his dependence, and be obedient to 
God in every way. And most of all, we ought 
to live the godly life, growing a character like 
the blessed Master, Son of God. For God's 
supremest purpose is not the building of oceans 
to sail, or mountains to climb, or forests to 
penetrate, but the building of a race of men 
worthy to be called His sons, to abide with 
Him forever. And man's crowning achieve- 
ment is not the exploring of a desolate land, the 
discovery of the north pole, the building of a 
flying-machine, however meritorious these may 
be; but his supremest achievement is the en- 
thronement of Jesus Christ in the heart and the 
conquering of the passions and the directing of 
them until Christ is Master of the life. Man 
is so great in possibility and achievement that 
we do not wonder at the psalmist crying : "What 
is man, that Thou art mindful of him? For 
Thou hast made him a little lower than the 
angels, and hast crowned him with glory and 
88 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



honor. Thou madest him to have dominion 
over the works of Thy hands." 

John is making no attempt to discredit man, 
but he does recognize his limitations, which are 
apparent enough. The earth is huge, colossal; 
but it has boundaries. The ocean extending 
from pole to pole, stretches away before us 
day after day as we sail, challenging our powers 
of imagination, seeming limitless; but the ocean 
is held in leash by the great continents ; it may 
thunder against the rocky coasts of Maine and 
Newfoundland, it may heap itself into great 
tides or work itself into a frenzy of waves, and 
may thrust the shore-line back a brief span ; but 
there are limits beyond which it can not go, 
there are regions it can not traverse, heights it 
can not climb. And so it is with man. How- 
ever great the range of his powers, whatever 
impression he may make upon the boundaries 
of ignorance and sin that seek to crowd in upon 
him and narrow his attainments : there are fixed 
boundaries beyond which he can not go, heights 
to which he can not climb; there are songs he 
can not sing, and other songs he can sing only 
with the help of Christ. 

89 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



There are the impossible songs of Nature. 
There are innumerable songs beyond the powers 
of man to emulate, but not beyond his powers 
to enjoy and appreciate. 

In the bird-world there is melody as preva- 
lent as the fragrance of flowers. I speak to- 
day of the song of the roseate grosbeak, one 
of the remarkable soloists of our country, be- 
cause I heard his singing yesterday. I was 
upon an errand to a neighbor's house; but as 
I turned from the street to the door, such music 
was wafted from a tree in the yard I forgot my 
errand and that here was a yard where I was 
a trespasser; and with hat in hand, out of def- 
erence to the ability of the songster, I drew 
near to listen. You recall that this was autumn- 
singing. In the spring, when the birds return, 
there is such satiety of music, for it is the time 
of love and wooing; and lady grosbeaks, how- 
ever plain and simple they appear to us in their 
drab garments, fill the breasts of their mates 
so full of music it can not be contained. It 
seems to spill out like the bubbling over of a 
spring, and the very atmosphere of spring lends 
itself to the making of melody. But this is 

90 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



autumn. Behind us are weeks of intensely hot 
weather. We have been stifled with heat and 
strangled with dust. And the birds are wearied 
from the exertions of the summer: building 
nests, brooding eggs, searching persistently for 
food for those ever-gaping mouths, patiently 
caring for their young, so wearied they have 
forgotten to sing. And they have had their un- 
derstanding that song and love would be put 
aside until another spring had come. 

And here was a bird in full song, not sing- 
ing for a mate or to the spring, but singing a 
farewell song to linger during the winter as a 
fragrant memory. It was like a farewell kiss 
from one you love about to go on a long jour- 
ney. It was a good-bye and a pledge that it 
would come again to gladden our hearts with 
its music. It was a rare moment. The colors 
of the bird were strikingly distinct, beating upon 
the eyeball as the big drops of rain beat upon 
the face. The delicate pink of the wild rose 
was upon its breast; the more delicate pink that 
blushes the apple-blossom, beneath its wings; 
below, as white as the virgin snow; above, a 
coat of black, flecked with great white snow- 
91 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



flakes. Here was brilliancy combined with ex- 
quisite harmony of color. The bird was con- 
stantly in motion from very exuberance of spirit. 
It seemed as though there was some energy 
within that compelled it in its movements as 
the steam causes the lid of the tea-kettle to 
bubble. It was all excitement, all a-quiver. On 
the twig it was rocking and swaying and swing- 
ing and tilting from excessive vivacity. And 
this did not suffice. Every few moments it 
would launch into the air and describe circles 
about the tree, whirling, pirouetting, plunging, 
climbing, a mass of beautiful color in motion, 
and singing its very life away. 

And such music ! The gurgling of the chorus 
of blackbirds is sweet enough, or the weird tone 
of the mourning-dove that swells and fades like 
the distant swell of the sea. But here was a 
song whose notes were as clear as those of a 
silver bell, and certain and accurate as he leaped 
from one note to another and ran the scale; so 
musical as to be rivaled only by another gros- 
beak. And I stood with hat off, with memory 
bringing to mind other grosbeak friends who 
had sung for me in the library in the midst of 
92 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



winter, abiding proof of the coming of the 
spring-melodies, friends much loved, now lost 
awhile; and my heart was swelling with grati- 
tude to God. John was right. No man could 




THE MUSIC OF THE PINES 



learn that song, no man could duplicate its 
sweetness with trumpet or whistle or stringed 
instrument. God filled that bird full of song 
to overflowing, and God's music from God's 
instrument was spilling out upon God's world 
to make God's children happy. There was no 
93 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



man in sight, no thought of man in mind; God 
was everywhere, and His praise was being sung 
in rapturous melody by one of His creatures. 

The pines are one of Nature's sublimest 
choruses. Wood-songs are as distinct as the 
voices of men and women. The aspen and balm 
of Gilead and rough-voiced oak are as different 
as flute and harp and horn. I listened to this 
mighty orchestra repeatedly during the month 
of August. The players were legion, filling the 
valley and flanking the adjoining hills: with 
jackets of green; with trunks clad with garments 
of purplish-gray, standing so tall and stalwart, 
knee-deep in feathery hemlock (or American 
yew) ; with fingers, if you will think of it thus, 
so many as to be uncountable, playing upon the 
reeds of the wind; or holding countless strings 
of green, if you will imagine it thus, toned with 
rosin like the bow of the violin. And the breeze 
was moving with delicate touch across them, as 
a nurse with delicate step moves across the floor, 
making music as that of chastened waves upon 
some far-away shore, sustained, strengthening, 
subduing, almost sobbing at times. As the sob- 
bing sweetness fills the listener who tarries alone 
94 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



in the presence of the orchestra, his soul seems 
to have lost its aloofness, its distinctness. It 
has reached out and enveloped the orchestra, 
and the music is sobbing, swelling through its 
corridors as the sea-wind sighs in the heart of 
the sea-shell. John was right. No man could 
learn that song. God filled that orchestra with 
song to overflowing, and God fills my soul to 
overflowing as I listen to His spirit moving the 
pine trees to music. 

The song of the night is one of Nature's 
mixed programs. We are away from the hide- 
ous noises of the city, the clattering of horses' 
hoofs upon rough pavements, the shrieking of 
venders of various wares, the screeching and' 
grinding of the switch-engine, the thundering 
of the freight-train, the ribald songs and pro- 
fane jesting and loud bawling of men turned 
out of saloons, half-drunken, reeling along our 
streets at one o'clock in the morning, unre- 
strained disturbers of orderly people, and with 
all sense of propriety gone. Each season has 
its own night-song. There is the song of the 
night when the fragrance of the clover comes 
up from the meadow, and the dew lies thick 
95 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



upon the greensward, and the stars great and 
small people the sky, and the moon is wither- 
ing, and you are alone so far as human com- 
rades are concerned, intently listening, and 
you hear the hum of the swift-rushing blood 
across the ear-drum, the drum-beats of the 
heart marking time for this wonderful on- 
ward-marching life, and the hum of myriad in- 
sects from grass and bush, and the subdued 
hush of the breeze that will not profane Na- 
ture's stillness, and the quiet music of the stars, 
and the voiceless music of the dark. It is 
almost as still as death, and yet vocable with 
many sounds that blend into music inconceivably 
sweet. And one is not sure but that he has 
passed earth's divide and stands on heaven's 
shore. And there is the music of the winter, 
when the snow muffles the noises of man and 
covers the scars he has made upon the face of 
mother earth, and the frost is wrapping the 
wire fences and the twigs of trees with fan- 
tastic figures, and congealing the breath. Then 
is heard the boisterous music of the wind as in 
stormy gusts it sweeps across the shuddering 
earth or trumpets among the branches of the 
96 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



trees. And when the boisterous wind has fin- 
ished, there is the delicate music of frosty crys- 
tals or vibrant snow. And the very lights and 
shadows cast upon the earth by the pale moon 
seem to breathe forth faintest music. God has 
filled even the shadows of the night, the dark 
places of earth, with unutterable music; and as 
I stand and listen and catch the symphony, my 
own soul responds to the melodies of God and 
whispers His praises. 

Yes, John was right. There are songs which 
no man can learn ; but man can listen, and with 
mind intent and heart in tune with the Infinite 
can hear and enjoy and give praise. 

There are other songs which the untaught 
man can not sing; they lie outside of man's un- 
aided powers, beyond the limitations fixed by 
his boorishness and ignorance and sin; but these 
are removable limits, and these are songs that 
may be learned, even the "Songs of Redemp- 
tion." 

Christ is the Teacher of these songs. I have 
spoken of man's greatness and remarkable 
achievements. He can not do anything with- 
out God's help. He can not cross the ocean 
7 97 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 

without calling upon God's forests and mines 
to furnish him with a ship, God's fields to fur- 
nish him with a sail, God's gardens to furnish 
him with food for the voyage. It is only by 
constant subjection to the laws and decrees of 
God that he can do anything, that he can live, 
that he has being. But he may achieve some- 
thing of greatness without acknowledging God's 
help. The son who has been fed and clothed 
and housed and has inherited strength of body 
from his father, may use that very strength to 
strike his father in the face. And a man re- 
ceiving everything that is good because of the 
kindness of God, may use these talents and op- 
portunities without any recognition of God; 
yea, he may curse God to His face. But there 
are tasks he can not perform, there are heights 
to which he can not climb, there are songs he 
can not sing except as there is grateful recogni- 
tion of and willing surrender to the Son of God. 

Jesus is Teacher sent of God to man. Obe- 
dience to Christ wonderfully enlarges the pros- 
pects and possibilities of life. As the child 
needs the teacher who is wiser to help it to 
plan, and wisely accepts the plans as the teacher 
98 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



urges the child to stop its carelessness and in- 
dolence and evil habits, and to improve the 
time, that it may live a useful, honored life; 
so is Christ to man the Teacher to direct in 
planning, to warn against the destroying forces 
of life, to counsel and urge the better things. 
Appreciation and love toward Christ which 
leads to willing discipleship, and a regenerated 
heart: a heart out of which the discord and 
discontent have gone because of His abiding 
presence, out of which the demons have fled 
from before Him as the demon-infested swine 
fled from before Him in the land of the Gad- 
arenes, out of which sin has disappeared as the 
darkness disappears before the sun, — become 
the basis of a new man who can sing the songs 
of redemption. 

Christ teaches us to sing the "Song of Good 
Cheer:" not only when the sun is shining, but 
when the rain is falling; not only when victory 
is assured, but also when defeat threatens; not 
only when all things unite to make life easy and 
joyous, but also when the very powers of dark- 
ness seem allied against us. He teaches us the 
"Song of Good Cheer" containing the note of 
99 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



COURAGE for the fighting of battles against un- 
tried enemies, the making of journeys across un- 
known territories, the daring to venture upon 
any task lying in the path along which He leads 
us; containing the note of optimism which 
refuses to be hushed in the hour of seeming de- 
feat, which refuses to believe that Satan is mas- 
ter of this world, which does believe that, how- 
ever long the fight or bitter the struggle, God 
will win, the fogs will lift, the darkness will be 
dispelled, and righteousness will come to fill 
every heart as the sunshine fills the gardens 
about us; with its note of contentment that 
makes one at peace in the modest home, living 
quietly apart from mad seekers after wealth 
and great houses and luxuries, and does not 
pine and is not jealous because of their appear- 
ance of success and happiness; that makes one 
at peace in obscurity, living contentedly apart 
from "the madding crowds" who are ever seek- 
ing after position, popularity, notoriety; that 
cultivates modesty, contrasted with boisterous, 
riotous brawlers. 

"Toiling — rejoicing — sorrowing, 
Onward through life he goes; 

100 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



Each morning sees some task begun, 

Each evening sees its close; 
Something attempted, something done, 

Has earned a night's repose." 

The follower of Christ is experiencing the truth 
of the blessed promise of Paul, "The peace of 
God, which passeth all understanding, shall 
keep your hearts and minds through Christ 
Jesus." 

Christ teaches us to sing the "Song of Serv- 
ice." The song of labor is always sweet if one 
be not too near; the doing of things, the build- 
ing of houses, the writing of books, the solving 
of problems, the labor that makes man hap- 
pier and freer and larger and brings him on 
his way up the hill toward God, — all of that 
is sweet if one is not too near. But as one 
approaches the toilers, whether at desk or shop 
or factory, too often he hears the notes of dis- 
cord, quarreling and disputing and jangling, 
fighting about the way the task is to be done, 
and about the returns of the labor, instead of 
praising God that together, with each man in 
his place, we may do the work for the saving 
and uplifting of the world. Unselfish service 
is the beautiful song with no discordant note 
101 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



to mar its melody. What music is gendered by 
the life of service ! 

In describing "A Doctor of the Old School," 
"Ian Maclaren" says, "He did his best for the 
need of every man, woman, and child in this 
wild-straggling district, year in, year out, in the 
snow and in the heat, in the dark and in the 
light, without rest and without holiday, for 
forty years." This was the favorite character 
for Governor Johnson of Minnesota, who has 
just fallen by the way in the midst of life's 
duties. Let me read from an editorial in one 
of our papers: "Like his favorite character, 
Governor Johnson has gone about among his 
people for forty years, doing his best for the 
need of every man, woman, and child, 'in the 
snow and in the heat, in the dark and in the 
light.' " So lived this remarkable man, singing 
the "Song of Service." Let me read again: 
"A few days ago in the city of Chicago, Mrs. 
Sarah C. Clark celebrated a very unusual an- 
niversary. For thirty-two years she had been 
a regular worker in the Pacific Garden Mission, 
which her husband, Colonel George R. Clark, 
founded. Since his death, ten years ago, she 
102 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



has had entire charge of the work and has con- 
ducted meetings there for five thousand consec- 
utive nights. Any one who knows anything of 
the Pacific Garden Mission knows what a power 
for good it has been and is. Into that hopper 
has been poured the scourings of humanity, the 
murderer, the crook, the harlot, the starving, 
the dregs of the underworld; and out of the 
mill has come the regenerated, the square man, 
the honest one, the decent woman, fed and 
clothed. Five thousand consecutive nights la- 
boring for the good of the world ! Not five 
thousand nights of shifting pasteboards in a 
senseless effort to win a prize that can be bought 
for fifty cents ; not five thousand nights of feast- 
ing and drinking to injure the natural organs of 
the body; not five thousand nights in the reck- 
less pursuit of a will-o'-the-wisp that leads to 
a slough of despond: but five thousand nights 
of devotion to a sacred duty; five thousand 
nights of laboring with the sin-sick and the 
weary; five thousand nights of demonstrating 
how great are the possibilities of" human exer- 
tion and how glorious are the results that are 
bound to come. Five thousand nights of selfish- 
103 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



ness or five thousand nights of sacrifice? The 
lamented Governor of Minnesota, the brave 
little woman of Pacific Garden Mission, give 
the answer and point the way." But these are 
not all. The slum-workers at home, the mis- 
sion-workers abroad, the man at home in busi- 
ness, among friends or among strangers, whose 
heart is filled with the spirit and love of Jesus 
Christ, who is living the Christ-life, doing good 
to all men, doing good to them which despite- 
fully use him, counting his life of great account 
only as it can be used to bring blessing and peace 
and joy to other lives, that man is singing the 
"Song of Service." 

Jesus teaches the "Song of Heaven," sung by 
those whose robes of white are the purity of 
heart He has brought to those who serve Him; 
whose palm-branches are symbols of victory, 
sorrows having ceased, and pains having been 
conquered and cast aside; whose voices are the 
voices of praise and thanksgiving and grati- 
tude to the Lamb of God which taketh away 
the sin of the world. We shall sing there, some 
day, a part of that chorus whose music no ear 
hath heard in its fullness or mind conceived in 
104 



NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



its richness. But now, as we journey on toward 
heaven, more and more of that music of the 
heavenly song is in our hearts. 

There are songs that no man can learn but 
the redeemed of the Lord. But there is the 
Christ over against every man, the Teacher 
from God who seeks to come into every heart 
and teach every man to sing the "Song of 
Purity," the "Song of Good Cheer," the "Song 
of Service," the "Song of Eternity." He is so 
eager to teach every one, to teach you, that He 
died to bring it to pass; so eager that He dwells 
with us for evermore; so eager that He knocks 
at the door of your heart. "To-day, if ye will 
hear His voice, harden not your hearts." 



105 



IV 

THE IMMANENT GOD 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He 
will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will 
abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, 
neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the 
heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher, 
than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For 
as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and 
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it 
bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, 
and bread to the eater: so shall My word be that goeth forth 
out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it 
shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in 
the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, 
and be led forth with peace : the mountains and the hills 
shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees 
of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall 
come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come 
up the myrtle tree : and it shall be to the Lord for a name, 
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." — Isaiah 
55:7-i3- 

"Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation 
of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands; 
they shall perish; but Thou remainest; and they shall wax 
old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold 
them up, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, 
and Thy years shall not fail." — Hebrews i : 10-12. 

"Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth there- 
with? Or shall the saw magnify itself against him that 
shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them 
that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it 
were no wood." — Isaiah 10:15. 



IV 



"The Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not." — 
Isaiah 49 : 28. 

UPON these consecutive Sabbath-days 
we are seeking for evidences of God 
in the world, in history, in literature, 
in man's body, in man's mind; to-day we seek 
for Him in the natural, material world. 

The word "evidence" is used deliberately. 
The erudite philosopher or psychologist may 
object to the word and declare that God does 
not evidence Himself, and it may be true that 
there is a sense in which the charge is correct. 
Perhaps, according to the philosophical stand- 
ards, God can not be proven. But to me in 
my plain, simple thinking these are evidences, 
are proofs; and I think that the average man 
is little concerned with philosophical subtleties, 
and finds or will find upon investigation what 
I find: that here are evidences that satisfy him 
as to the existence of God — such a God as the 
109 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



Christians believe in and worship ; and through 
such investigation he may come to worship 
Him. To me God proves Himself, and I pre- 
sent to-day one of the evidences. 

The text is a comprehensive sentence. Isaiah 
asserts that God is the Creator of the earth. 
It is not an orphan ; did not, like Topsy, simply 
grow; did not spring into being of its own vo- 
lition or accidentally happen to be. God is the 
Creator of everything contained in the uni- 
verse; not simply primal conditions, not simply 
matter and force and space : every star and con- 
stellation is builded by Him, and every moun- 
tain and valley, and every shifting hill of sand, 
and every forest and plain, every flower and 
bird. God is the Maker of everything that is, 
even to the ends of the earth. And He fainteth 
not; He is not far away, is not taking a vaca- 
tion or resting: He is busy at work here and 
now. 

The text includes all of the findings of science. 
Science has to do with observations, the study 
of things as they are and have come to be, and 
how they conduct themselves. Science is the 
keen-eyed man seeing things; and all that has 
110 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



been seen or will be, is here told as the work 
which the Creator is doing in His universe. 
The text includes all of philosophy in a nut- 
shell. Philosophy takes the facts which the 




A SHIFTING HILL OF SAND 



scientist has gathered and draws conclusions 
from them, and here is the final conclusion that 
this is God's earth and He is in it, doing things. 
The thought is so simple that "wayfaring men, 
though fools, shall not err therein." They may 
not know the details of botany as the botanist 
111 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



does who has given his life to this study and 
has written volumes containing the information 
he has gathered, but in the last analysis they 
stand with the botanist, able only to say that 
God is the Builder of the flower. They may 
not have any technical knowledge of astronomy, 
may not be able to call the stars by name, or 
point out the constellations as they slowly and 
nightly move across the dome of heaven; they 
may be ignorant of the nebular hypothesis and 
the Copernican theory and the transmission of 
light, but fundamentally they stand where the 
most learned astronomer stands, with the con- 
fession upon their lips that God is the Builder 
of the universe. 

Not all men see these simple, great truths; 
that is true. Some get so puzzled with mate- 
rial things, and enamored by them, that they 
do not see through and beyond to the mighty 
God, the Source of material things. Some get 
so fascinated and blinded by the processes of 
making things, studying how they are made so 
intently as not to look beyond to the Maker 
of them. It is easily possible for a man to 
get lost in and bewildered by details. A man 
112 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



on the mountain-side may be scanning so in- 
tently the little hills and valleys in the midst 
of which he walks as to fail to see the great 
mountain which carries these upon its shoul- 
ders and which towers above them. So a man 
may walk in the midst of suns and stars, of 
land and sea, of beast and bird, and fail to see 
the mighty God who holds them in the hollow 
of His hand and who towers above them. A 
man may look eagerly into the face of Nature 
and fail to recognize • in the multitudinous 
changes and diversities that the unchanging God 
is the great Essential. I am asking you to go 
with me in thought to-day along some of the 
highways and byways of Nature with the intent 
that we may come face to face with God. 

Need I apologize for preaching a Nature- 
sermon? Is there danger of making it a theme 
too pronounced? Why, I might as well apolo- 
gize for repeated readings of the Bible. These 
are teachers sent from God, and until we know 
Him as He is we will need to read and re-read 
these volumes. Until God has grown weary 
of writing Nature-sermons, let me not grow 
weary of preaching them. Though I behold 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



the wings of the morning as they fan the east- 
ern sky with their pinions of orange and red, 
He is there. And when the sun gilds the west- 
ern sky or paints the dappled clouds with purple 
and lilac, He is there. And where He is we 
shall make no mistake if we go and seek to 
learn what He busies Himself about. 

There are certain men who say that God is 
not in Nature, they do not find Him there. 
(Perhaps they do not seek Him there.) Most 
conspicuous in this group is the churchman; 
more conspicuous than the scientist or even the 
atheist, perhaps because we expect better things 
of him ; but perhaps, also, because his followers 
are more numerous, and also because he often 
is more positive in his convictions and more 
thunderous in his declarations. This particular 
man in the Church denies that God is in Na- 
ture because it is easier to deny than to explain 
existing conditions in the world if God has any- 
thing to do with it. There is so much of suf- 
fering and cruelty and death. The fox kills 
the rabbit; the pickerel pursues and mangles and 
swallows alive the smaller fish; the dragon-fly 
is more savage and bloodthirsty than mytho- 
114 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



logical dragons, as it lies in wait or follows and 
seizes and kills some fly or other insect. 

Indeed, is it not always life at the expense 
of other life? The beetle kills the plant that 
it may live; the frog swallows the beetle, the 
snake the frog; the bird preys upon the snake, 
and the bird, when asleep, is surprised and 
killed by the pine marten. Life builds up by 
destroying other life. And this is not all. The 
storm rages, and hundreds of thousands of birds 
lie dead in its wake. The cyclone sweeps across 
the country, and ruin and death are its results. 
The earthquake throws the ground into convul- 
sions, buildings topple over, fires are enkindled, 
and human lives by hundreds are destroyed; 
the flood rages in the river-valley of the Yang- 
ste-Kiang or other river, and thousands are 
drowned. In India the monsoon does not come, 
the famine spreads, and the groans of the dying 
fill the air; or pestilence creeps through the 
country with stealthy movements, leaving its vic- 
tims everywhere. And there are the maimed 
and halt and blind, the deformed. A dark, 
somber picture is portrayed. This is not the 
time to show that this can be explained in har- 
115 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



mony with the plan of the beneficent God for 
the uplift and progress of the world, to show 
that the law of sacrifice is everywhere at work, 
compulsory or voluntary. But many, seeing the 
somberness of the picture, simply give the world 
over to the devil. 

This attitude of the churchman is also partly 
explainable as the outcome of the Augustinian 
philosophy. There are places at the crest of 
the watershed where the water may very easily 
be turned in either direction, so as to flow to 
opposite points of the compass. But later on, 
when the stream has become a mighty river 
with great banks, it would be well-nigh impos- 
sible to change the direction of the current. So 
is the history of schools of thinkers. When a 
system of thought originated with some man, 
it would not have been difficult to have cor- 
rected, contradicted, denied, or changed the di- 
rection of the current of thought; but the sys- 
tem grows, its followers multiply, it becomes 
entrenched, other schools of thought are fash- 
ioned by it, it becomes "set," rigid, and inelastic. 
Many even look upon a system of thought as 
divine because it has long been accepted, and 
116 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



one is counted a heretic who dares to question 
or oppose, though his right should be as un- 
questioned as that of the originator, and his in- 
formation may be superior. 

Long ago Augustine fathered the idea that 
God did His work with the world in six literal 
days, and then went off and left it, being, as 
Carlyle would say, a kind of absentee-God, sit- 
ting on the rim of the universe or winding up 
the world like an alarm-clock, and then going 
away and leaving it to run down or smash. 
Augustine was a mighty man for good, but his 
theories in a field where he was ignorant have 
done the Church much harm. Now, perhaps 
growing out of the above conditions, many have 
come to believe that God's only relation to Na- 
ture is to upset its workings or to interfere with 
them now and then. And a miracle is conceived 
as God contradicting Nature. God is in Nature 
only when He speaks to the storm, and the sea 
becomes quiet; speaks to the water, and it be- 
comes wine ; speaks to the fig tree, and the leaves 
wither; instead of recognizing that God is in 
the storm as well as the sleeping sea, in the 
water as well as the wine, in the fig tree when 
117 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



the leaves do not wither as well as when they 
do. They think of God as fighting against 
Nature and seeking to conquer and control it 
just as we do, instead of being its Maker and 
Ruler. 

With the ordinary procession of Nature, God 
has nothing to do. Only the unexplainable 
things are of His doing, such as the making 
of force, matter, life, species. The result is that 
the world under normal conditions, when some- 
thing unusual is not occurring, has been sepa- 
rated from God and either abandoned or con- 
signed to the devil. As some spiritualistic me- 
dium borrows a table and uses it only for table- 
tippings, rappings, and other grotesque phe- 
nomena, so God is conceived as borrowing the 
world or taking possession of it now and then 
for some table-tipping seance, but it is left to 
care for itself in its sober, serious moments. 
God is juggling and performing tricks with the 
world. He is seen in the burning bush, but not 
in the bushes everywhere growing and blossom- 
ing and bearing fruit; in the whale when it 
swallowed Jonah, but not when it sports with 
the waves of the sea and spouts geyser-like 
118 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



streams of water and spray into the air; in the 
mountain when Moses received and wrote the 
Ten Commandments, but not when the storms 
play about its brow and the snows gather upon 
its sides; in the sea when Jesus spoke to the 
storm, but not when it tossed the frightened 
mariners ; in the fig tree when it was cursed, but 
not when it was a blessing to humanity by bear- 
ing its harvest of fruit. 

I have heard a minister say that when the 
transmutation of species could be explained he 
would give up his Christianity, and have heard 
others make similar statements. Do we under- 
stand the import of this foolhardy statement? 
Foolhardy because, if meant, it means that 
Christianity will need to be abandoned; fool- 
hardy again, because it is putting a premium on 
ignorance. I will believe in God as long as I 
can not know much about Him and His way 
of doing things; but when the world knows 
how He is creating life or forms of life, I will 
give up my faith in Him. By this position the 
Church has lost much, when it ought to be 
learning all that it can about God and ought 
to be praising Him for every addition to truth 
119 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



and for every discovery as to His workings in 
His world. To the man taking this position 
let me say again that he is throwing himself be- 
fore the engine, foolishly. The human mind 
craves the truth because God has endowed it 
with that passion, and it will run to and fro 
through the whole earth, seeking to know all 
that it can about the world; and instead of ob- 
jecting and denouncing, we will do the Church 
service if we appropriate and rejoice that we 
know more about the way in which God is do- 
ing things. 

Then there is the scientist (some of them) 
who is studying, investigating, learning, gather- 
ing facts, drawing conclusions, without taking 
God into account; and sometimes he seems able 
to get along without God. And the position 
of this man has been dictated largely by the 
attitude of the Church. It has said that God 
is only in the abnormal, the unnatural, the un- 
explainable, the unlawful. It is the well-known 
division of natural and supernatural. What is 
understood as working according to natural 
laws is not divine; what is beyond this, not un- 
derstood, not explainable according to natural 
120 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



law, is divine, God's realm. And the scientist 
has accepted the Church's definition. 

Now, at first it seemed a safe position. How- 
ever erroneous it might be, the unknown realm 
was so great; there was so much room for God. 
As if five hundred years ago the Church had 
said that the civilized part of the world be- 
longed to man, the rest to God. At that time 
it would have left God plenty of room. But 
Amerigo Vespucci came, Columbus came, Cor- 
tez and Magellan and Hudson and Franklin 
and Lewis and Clark, until the unknown world 
has been added to the known, practically every 
bit of territory explored, and by such a division 
God has been driven from His possessions. 
Now that very thing has happened in the think- 
ing world by such a superficial defining of nat- 
ural and supernatural. At first so little was 
known and explainable that God seemed to be 
secure; but now, by patient investigation, igno- 
rance has changed to knowledge, the unexplored 
has been explored, the "unexplainable" is ex- 
plained by the children in the grammar-school. 
Students have explored the realm of light and 
heat and gravitation and ether and electricity 
121 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



and color and species and life, not learning all 
about them, but learning enough to bring them 
within the realm of law, of what we call natural 
law, until Comte, accepting the dictum of the 
Church and seeing the increasing knowledge of 
natural law, says that "science will finally con- 
duct God to the frontier, and bow Him out 
with thanks for His personal services." 

Others of this group of scientists have delib- 
erately or otherwise confused cause and method, 
and here has come the harm. For example, 
evolution as a method of creation is noble, and 
adds dignity and glory to God the Creator. 
Evolution is the process of creation God has 
employed. But evolution assumed as casual is 
absurd. Life is seen producing life, and is as- 
sumed as casual instead of a method of per- 
petuating life. This man makes heat and light 
and moisture and soil causes for the growth of 
wheat, and in his extravagant, delirious mo- 
ments declares that "food produces brains, and 
brains produce thought;" that Hamlet and the 
Messiah and the Sistine Madonna are caused 
by wheat and beef. Or the "laws of Nature" 
supplant God, and it is assumed that they ex- 
122 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



plain everything or will account for everything, 
and thus the laws are made potential and self- 
operative. They are a kind of perpetual-motion 
machine, doing their work without requiring an 
Initiator or a Controller. Such reasoning is 
illogical. A law is but an expression of a will 
or personality. And the one who supplants 
God by natural law merely deifies those laws or 
reads into them the attributes of God. 

But if the above statements are taken as state- 
ments of method, all difficulty and inconsistency 
and ground for quarreling vanish. God has en- 
dowed life with the power of propagating life, 
or God works through life to produce life; God 
employs heat and light and moisture and fer- 
tility of soil to react upon the kernel of wheat, 
and thus causes it to grow and multiply. God 
has fashioned us in such form that food may 
be built into brain, and He has associated the 
mind and body in intimate relationship, not yet 
well understood by us, and the condition of the 
body has its influence upon the mind and 
thought. With the scientist taking this view- 
point, as many do, we have a common meeting- 
place. The churchman, particularly interested 
123 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



in God's dealing with humanity, still rejoices 
for all the knowledge that may be gained as to 
the way God has been building the world and 
is carrying it on. And the scientist seeking 
knowledge of God in the material world fellow- 
ships with the churchman in praise of God, and 
with him worships in spirit and in truth, appre- 
ciating what the churchman is doing to learn 
of God's activities in the spiritual realm and for 
applied Christianity. 

The bombastic egotist who struts back and 
forth before the public eye and loudly asserts 
that he has not seen God, and HE has been look- 
ing for Him in the laboratory with scalpel and 
reagent and test-tube; that he has been looking 
in the minute world with the microscope, in the 
skies with the telescope, deserves only to be ig- 
nored, left alone, that he may strut and exalt 
his ego to his heart's content. But the scientist 
and the churchman both honestly and meekly 
and reverently seeking after the truth are broth- 
ers exploring mysteries, facing the problems 
created by One God. And though the paths 
may lead along different levels and into differ- 
ent territory, they should bid each other God- 
124 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



speed and rejoice in each other's achievements, 
remembering that whatever is done is helping 
to solve the common problem, to lessen the com- 
mon ignorance. 

To these men, these brothers, Isaiah through 
this text is suggesting that God is not past, but 
present; is not accidental and grotesque in 
His conduct, but orderly; and that the laws 
governing the world are God-made and God- 
sustained and God-enforced. This is God's 
world, and He is in it, looking after it, and 
caring for it, never wearied nor asleep. And 
we will look for Him now. 

In the fascinating story of "Robinson Cru- 
soe," for boys (and men; I re-read it the other 
day) , do you recall how Crusoe, walking by 
the sea on the farther side of the island, found 
footprints in the sand; how he looked far and 
wide for the man who had made the footprints, 
without avail; wherever he looked, out to sea, 
along the beach, or into the valley or forest, 
he did not see a man, but the footprints were 
evidence enough to Crusoe that there were men 
about and they would have to be reckoned with? 
We can not see God with these eyes or feel Him 
125 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



with these hands as we can see the stars and 
hills or feel the pebble or seashell. He is not 
a God of flesh and blood; but we can find, can 
see His footprints on the earth. These foot- 
prints satisfy us that He is about and is to be 
reckoned with. And we will look at a few 
of these footprints now. 

First, God is the great Origin, the primal 
Cause. At the end of a man's thinking, as he 
goes back and back, this stands not only as the 
opening sentence of the Bible, God's written 
word, but also as the opening sentence of the 
universe, God's material word, "In the begin- 
ning God." Let us look, first, from the center 
to the circumference. Comparing the universe 
to a great wheel, God is not sitting upon the 
rim of it, but God is sitting at the hub; nay, 
rather, God is the hub. In the beginning there 
is only God, only hub. But in the fullness of 
time and according to His will His power mani- 
fests itself in various ways : force, space, ether, 
electricity, matter, light, heat, life, conscious- 
ness. The wheel is building, and these words 
may be likened to the spokes in the wheel; not 
that all of them are co-ordinate or of equal 
126 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



value, but they are mighty group-words in our 
thinking, and thus may be used for illustration. 
Under each of these and similar words we group 
other words, things, ideas as subordinate to 
them, and by so doing we are building the rim 
of the wheel. The fault with this figure is that 
it is mechanical, and the universe is not me- 
chanical; it is an evolution, a growth, but the 
figure will illustrate God's relation to His world. 

The human mind, however, does not work 
from the hub to the circumference; it really 
works by process of synthesis from the rim to 
the hub. It is in touch with details which come 
to it through the senses, and from these it learns 
of the fundamentals; it is tarrying first on the 
rim of the wheel. A man sees running water, 
stagnant water, water in rivers, water in lakes, 
fresh water and salt water, water under various 
conditions. He sees cloud and vapor, fog and 
dew, rain and snow, ice and sleet. The mind 
Is synthesizing, it grasps the idea that water 
manifests itself in various ways, but water is 
the common term. A man learns of the Cau- 
casian and Mongolian and Ethiopian, of the 
Semitic and anti-Semitic races, of men who are 
127 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



tall and who are short, fat and lean, old and 
young, sluggish and agile. Here are multitudes 
of details, but one day he sees that man is the 
common term, and he has made notable advance 
when he has grasped the group-word. Again 
he sees man, horse, bird, fish, snake, mollusk, 
and many other living things, a multitude of 
details; but one day the man sees that life is 
the common factor, the fundamental term in all 
of these details. So he studies lightning, mag- 
netism, the aurora borealis, and discovers elec- 
tricity as the group-word. So he finds atom, 
ether, gravitation. He is building spokes in the 
wheel. The mind is on the backward track 
searching for beginnings, causes, fundamentals. 
It is asking now what is the common term, the 
fundamental principle or cause from which these 
spokes have sprung. It is standing now, facing 
the center of the wheel, the beginning of things, 
and it says, "God is the Beginning, the Center 
of the wheel, of the universe." 

This is not removing all of the mystery and 
ignorance involved in the idea of God. He is 
forever beyond us and impossible to us. We 
are not coming and can not come to the center 
128 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



of the hub ; our continued investigations and 
added knowledge but extend the rim of the 
wheel farther out. But whatever ignorance is 
involved in this idea of God as the beginning, 
there is ignorance and despair besides in every 
other view. Browning strikingly expresses the 
contrast thus : 

"All we have gained by our unbelief 
Is a life of doubt diversified by faith, 
For one of faith diversified by doubt: 
We called the chess-board white, — we call it black." 

Knowing something of the writings of Spencer 
and Huxley and Haeckel and their class, I say 
that what is lacking in their positions and is 
present here is a workable, conceivable theory 
that does not leave a man lost in the woods, 
as Huxley would have it, but holds ever before 
him a definite aim and plan and hope. What- 
ever others may say, my mind demands a First 
Cause, where it may rest. Until then, whatever 
it learns, it is not satisfied but wanders on, cry- 
ing night and day, asking, "What is beyond? 
What is beyond?" and only rests and is con- 
tent when it is facing Him and resting there, 
"In the beginning, God." 
9 129 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



Again, my mind recognizes and demands God 
as Creator. Man is a maker, but not a creator. 
He can take existing things and reshape them 
and fashion them anew; but in all of his won- 
derful works he only changes what already is; 
he does not call into existence. But a creator is 
demanded; not merely one who can fashion 
things, but one who can call things into exist- 
ence, who can cause that to be which has not 
been. Man fashions material substances: God 
calls matter itself into existence. Man can 
measurably control life: God creates life. Man 
can measurably develop consciousness : God cre- 
ates consciousness. If somebody asserts that 
consciousness is a manifestation of life, I do 
not deny, but only say that if it is in life, it 
had to be put there. Nothing can be gotten 
out of life that has not been put into life, out 
of matter that has not been put into matter, 
out of energy that has not been put into energy. 
Clear thinking holds us to this position. If 
this is not true we are lost. By what method 
these creations came to be I do not attempt 
to say; but some time, somewhere, somehow 
these things came to be ; and the one who 
130 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



caused them to be, by that act is creator; we 
call Him God. 

The very orderliness and intricacy of crea- 
tion make the deduction doubly convincing. 
We refuse to believe, can not believe, that these 
things could possibly come by chance. Napo- 
leon silences the speculations of his officers con- 
cerning God by pointing to the stars he has 
been contemplating, so beautiful, so mighty, so 
orderly, so harmonious, and asking them who 
was maker of them. Lord Kelvin, the great 
physicist, walking with Liebig, the renowned 
scientist, asks whether he believes that flowers 
can be accounted for in terms of chemistry and 
physics, and receives a reply in the negative; 
they require a Creator who has made them by 
manipulating these forces. Beattie, the learned 
Scotchman, schools his child and declares his 
own belief in God as Creator by planting 
flowers in rows to spell the child's name, when 
growing. The child is positive upon finding 
the growing name that it could not have been 
accidental, by chance; somebody did it. And 
Beattie taught the child that by the same de- 
ductions an orderly world was not here by 
131 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



chance, but by the planning and power of a 
mighty God. With most of us, at least, this 
truth is axiomatic. We find a watch and insist 
that there must be a Builder. We look at the 
mountains lifting their brawny shoulders above 
the clouds, the mighty canyon deep in whose 
throat the river gurgles, the sun unwearyingly 
running his race day after day, and refuse to 
believe that these things are accidental or pos- 
sible without being created; they are God's foot- 
prints, God's finger-marks. Back of them we 
see a Creator. 

Again, we find God as the Omnipotent. We 
look at the skyscraper man has built, towering 
twenty or thirty stories high, far above the sur- 
rounding buildings, and we wonder at man's 
audacity and ability until we stand by the giant 
redwood or the snow-capped mountain peak. 
We behold with admiration the irrigating-dam 
holding countless barrels of water in leash, and 
praise the engineering feat of man until we see 
the great expanse of water, lake or ocean, held 
in leash by hill and plain or by the continents 
themselves. We marvel at the genius of man 
as the great steamships come plowing across 
132 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



the harbor to the dock until we look at the 
starry fleets of heaven, deploying and moving 
majestically, evenly, ever forward. We praise 
man for what he has been able to do with his 
limited powers ; we stand dumb before God who 
has done the impossible things, who is the Om- 
nipotent One. 

We note, again, infinite skill. Man strug- 
gles to make a perpetual-motion machine : God 
endows the heart with strength for fifty or a 
hundred years. Man is stumbling in his en- 
deavors to navigate the air: God makes every 
bird a dexterous and automatic flying-machine. 
Man builds a submarine boat: but it is an un- 
certain thing in contrast with the water-beetle. 
The pipe-organ loses its tone and harmony: 
Niagara thunders through the ages. The flute 
makes discord as well as sweet tones : the hermit 
thrush but adds melody to the evening air. 
Such ingenuity, such cunning, such mechanism 
are displayed that we say God has been about 
here at work. This is not the work of man: 
this is the work of God. 

Again, we find purpose, an attribute of per- 
sonality, a personal God. We see the build- 
133 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



ing of a cathedral: the excavating, the sinking 
of the foundation to the bed-rock, the walls of 
stone and marble, the arches and dome and 
spires gradually taking their places; and we 
can not be persuaded that there is not some un- 
derlying purpose and symmetrical plan. Each 
thing is done for the other parts and each grows 
out of the others, and all are builded into one 
for some sufficient reason. So we look at a 
tree : the roots and trunk and branches and twigs 
and leaves, and refuse to believe that this is 
an accidental aggregating of parts; each has 
its relation to the others, and all are brought 
together for some sufficient reason. We find 
a house completed, equipped with furniture and 
food and cooking-utensils, adorned with pictures 
and curtains and bric-a-brac, and we say, Some- 
body purposes to live here ; this is not done by 
chance and never to be used. We look upon 
the great world with its treasures, resources, 
problems, opportunities, and we say it is a 
home builded of God for His children. 

To say that there is no purpose is utterly 
confusing; to try to conceive of this natural 
world without plan or motive or object is mad- 
134 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



dening; to say that it is God's world, built for 
us, His children, where we may serve Him, is 
ennobling and answers not all but many of our 
questions, and gives us a program for life that 
is worthy of our best and highest efforts. 



EVERY BIRD CARES FOR ITS LITTLE ONES 



But why go on? We can not designate or 
examine every footprint, for the earth is cov- 
ered with them. We can not say, Lo ! here is 
God, or there; for behold! He is everywhere, 
wherever hands are lifted in prayer or wounded 
135 



THE IMMANENT GOD 



heart cries out for healing or penitent soul seeks 
for forgiveness and uplift; and also where 
every blade of grass is growing, where every 
leaf is quivering in gentle breeze, where every 
flower spills out its fragrance upon the air, 
where every bird sings its song and cares for 
its little ones, where every cloud drifts and every 
drop of rain falls, God is there. He is every- 
where. 

And everything is His; His mark, His 
genius and skill and power and purpose are 
stamped in burning letters upon the midnight 
suns, resound in thunderous tones where the 
mad cataract leaps, echo and re-echo in every 
song of bird. This is God's world. He is in 
it; everything is His. And He is caring for 
His own, and does not faint. And to-day my 
heart praises Him, and with Christ the Lover 
of the lilies I stand beneath the spreading tree 
or by the singing brook and worship Him, the 
mighty God, the Creator of the ends of the 
earth. 



136 



V 



THE MESSAGE OF THE CANADIAN 
WILDERNESS 



THE MESSAGE OF THE CANADIAN 
WILDERNESS 



"As I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an 
altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. 
Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto 
you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing 
that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples 
made with hands ; neither is worshiped with men's hands, as 
though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and 
breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all na- 
tions of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and 
hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds 
of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply 
they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not 
far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and 
have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said. 
For we are also His offspring." — Acts 17:23-28. 



V 



"The voice of one crying in the wilderness." — John 1:23. 



OU recall that John the Baptist, seeking 



to turn attention from himself as he 



stands with his audience in the waste- 
places, the uninhabited section of country, de- 
scribes himself simply as a voice calling upon 
humanity to give heed to God and heralding the 
coming of Jesus Christ, Son of God and God's 
Seeker after those who are lost in the wilder- 
ness. As we look at John and as we hear him 
calling there is danger of our forgetting that 
there is a greater Voice in the wilderness than 
the voice of John, even the voice of God, call- 
ing to man through the very rocks and wooded 
hills and flowing waters in the midst of which 
he stands, telling man of His majesty and om- 
nipotence, and seeking to interest him in the 
fruitful quest after the perfect Revelation as 
it is found in Christ, His Son. 




139 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



During these weeks while you have wor- 
shiped here in this temple and in your homes, 
I have worshiped in the Canadian wilderness, 
far from the sight of any cathedral or the 
sound of any Angelus or the presence of any 
host assembled to worship Him, but not away 
from God or the sound of His voice or the ca- 
thedrals He has made or the chimes that re- 
sound with His praises. I have been in the 
wilderness and have heard the voice of God 
there, and bring you the wilderness-message to- 
day. 

It is a difficult task undertaken, to endeavor 
with words to draw a picture of the wilderness. 
Its almost unconquerableness is impressive. 
Man does conquer it : give him time and pa- 
tience enough; but it is a hard job. From 
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, a railroad has been 
projected to the Hudson Bay territory. It was 
surveyed or planned several years ago, but up 
to date only sixty-two miles of steel have been 
laid, laid under tremendous difficulties; for it 
seems almost a succession of trestles across 
streams and deep valleys, and of quarrying 
through granite hills. But such a railroad! 
140 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



Trains run two or three times a week, depend- 
ing upon "circumstances." We talk of sixty 
miles an hour; there they hope to make the trip 
of sixty-two miles during the light of a day, if 




ROCKS AND WOODED HILLS AND FLOWING 
WATERS 



everything goes well. But they have little ex- 
pectation of reaching the end of the journey 
without delays or accidents. 

On the edge of the wilderness where man 
has penetrated there are attempts at roads. In 
141 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



a civilized country they would hardly be recog- 
nized as cow-paths, and only because those sa- 
gacious wilderness-horses have the tracking in- 
stinct of a hound and the nimbleness of a cat 
are they enabled to make their way through the 
forest and scramble across such log-bridges as 
would make a city man faint and fall into the 
stream below if he endeavored to cross on foot. 
There are attempts at mining; for the frontiers- 
men in that region firmly believe that it abounds 
in mineral wealth. Here and there we came 
across an excavation or a seam of rock marred 
and scratched by the tools of a prospector, but 
that was all. One day we came upon such a 
scar, and by it there lay the hammer and pick 
and chisels, rusted and abandoned. One could 
plainly read the mute story, starved out, driven 
back by the wilderness. 

Upon the outskirts of the forest, endeavors 
have been made to clear the land. I looked 
upon territory where men had gone with axes 
and cut down a heavy "stand" of pine and re- 
moved the logs, yet the forest seemed to stand 
with undiminished thickness; and crowding be- 
tween the standing trees, I wondered how the 
142 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



logs could have been dragged among their 
trunks. I looked upon territory into which men 
had gone a second time v/ith their axes and 
had cut down and removed the hemlock and 
spruce, and still the forest seemed to stand as 
thickly as before. There were three forests in 
one; having been denuded twice, it had now 
become a deciduous forest of birches and maples 
and beeches, but seemingly as impenetrable as 
before. The stumps are quickly covered with 
new growth, the scars quickly heal, and one can 
hardly believe that two "crops" of timber have 
been removed. In the edges of the wilderness 
there were attempts at clearings, but they were 
feeble attempts. One gained the impression 
that a man would hardly dare leave his plowed 
patch over night, for fear of finding, when 
morning had come, that a forest had sprung up 
while he slept. Certainly vegetation very 
quickly takes possession of the land where ax 
and fire and plow have gone. Shrubbery and 
vine and tree conspire to wrest it from civiliza- 
tion and transform it back again into wilder- 
ness. 

Some white folks are trying to live in that 
143 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



country. Along the rude railroad there are a 
few scattered hamlets, not even named; they 
are known as "Camp 45," "Camp 58," "Camp 
62," indicating that they are so many miles 
in the wilderness, so many miles away from 
civilization. That life is so rude, so primitive, 
consisting of a room built of logs for a house, 
brick and mortar or even mud and sticks and 
stones for fireplace and chimney, scantiest fare 
upon the table which is made of rough boards, 
rudest clothing for wearing-apparel. I do not 
speak lightly of this people; it is the advance- 
guard of civilization, blazing the way to prog- 
ress and comforts and luxuries; I speak only 
pityingly of that barren, dreary, desolate life 
seeking to conquer the wilderness. 

There were lumber-jackies here and there in 
lumber-camps, and wood-scouts, and we occa- 
sionally came upon the camps of hunters and 
trappers. They were leading a hard life. 
When the winter's work is over and the logs 
have been driven down the river, which is 
swollen by the melting snows, to the sawmill, 
and the jackies are released from their labors 
and from the monotonous winter-life, little won- 
144 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



der that they rush for the saloons and the gam- 
bling-joints and the society of evil women, that 
they fight and swear, that they drink and gam- 
ble, and spend in a few days often the entire 
earnings of winter. I do not justify any man 
in his sins; but I can see that the wilderness, 
without society or school or church or whole- 
some amusement, will make those men almost 
mad, so that, thrust suddenly into the human 
world with its glamour, they lose all restraint 
and rush impetuously into these great evils. 
They are deserving of more thought and help 
than they have received from us who enjoy the 
fruits of their labors. 

And there are the Indians, fitting companions 
of the wilderness. During the summer they 
usually return to the reservation and grow fat 
and lazy at the expense of the Government. 
But when the autumn approaches, the instinct 
of the wild man blazes up, and they scatter 
through the trackless forest, hunting and trap- 
ping. Once we came upon a group of aban- 
doned wigwams in the heart of the woods, but 
usually each family goes by itself, selecting 
some territory, building a lean-to, and spending 
10 145 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



the winter there. Let me give you the history 
of one of these families as I read it, mostly in 
wilderness-language. 

We were camping on a lake through which 
the Chippewa River flowed. One day, looking 
across the lake, I saw on the side of a cedar 
tree a cross shining brightly from the reflected 
sunlight. Jumping into a canoe, I paddled 
across to investigate. The tree stood on the 
edge of a bluff overlooking the lake. Two 
paddles were tied together and tied to the tree, 
perhaps accidentally; but I thought likely it 
was a signal. Evidently some human being had 
been around; so I landed, to examine more 
closely. Nearby I found the home; but such 
a home, a typical home of the wilderness ! It 
was a most primitive lean-to; no windows or 
doors, no walls or floor, no sides or front, just 
some poles reaching from the ground to a cross- 
pole, roughly thatched with branches, facing the 
southeast, measurably protected by the woods 
behind and with the ashes of fires before. Va- 
rious evidences of camp-life were scattered 
around. There were pieces of moose-hide, and 
willow-stretchers for beaver-skins. These ani- 
146 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



mals can not be killed, according to the laws 
of Canada; but the Indian is not a creature of 
the laws : he is a part of the wilderness. Hang- 
ing to the branch of a tree was a nickel alarm- 
clock; so here was one sign of civilization. 

From a fire-ranger I later learned that the 
squaw had been taken sick, and in this wild 
place, away from doctors and medicines and 
nurses and comforts, she had died, leaving the 
Indian and children. The clock had stopped, 
and because of their superstition had not been 
removed. The man had placed the body of 
his wife out of the reach of the wild beasts, 
had taken the children on a long journey 
through the deep snows and over the hills back 
to the reservation, and with the coming of 
spring had returned to bury his wife. I found 
the burial-place on the edge of the lake, across 
from where the camp had been. After the 
body had been placed in a shallow grave, the 
man had cut pickets with his tomahawk, and I 
marveled at their accuracy: it seemed like the 
work of a saw. With them he had built a 
fence of pickets about the grave, to prevent its 
being dug into or disturbed by the wild beasts. 
147 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



Then he had cut down the forest trees about 
the grave and extending to the edge of the lake 
for perhaps a space ten or twelve rods square. 
The trees lay upon the ground as they had 
fallen. 

I went one morning early and stood by the 
rude tomb and watched the sun rise over the 
great hills that were across the lake. The grave 
was on the west shore of the lake, so that the 
view was uninterrupted. And it was magnifi- 
cent : the broad sweep of the placid waters ; the 
forests beyond hushed to funereal stillness ; and 
then the hills, climbing one above another, 
higher and higher, mighty steps leading up to 
the city of God; and the sun appearing above 
them seemed the open door into His presence. 
It was the work of a wild man, but it was noble 
work, proof enough that God's hands had fash- 
ioned him and had given him something of the 
noblest feelings and longings. Here had been 
pathetic sorrow and great love leading to these 
tender offices for her he loved, the best he 
could do. And here too was faith in God and 
the hereafter. He had buried her where she 
could look away to the rising sun and the bet- 
148 



i 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



ter day. May she rest in peace until that day 
when the trumpet shall sound and Christ shall 
call into His presence red man and white man 
alike, to measure them according to their op- 
portunities ! 

If the wild man supplants the civilized man, 
the wild beast supplants the beasts of the farm. 
The streams are filled with trout full of primal 
vigor and strength as they leap from the swirl- 
ing eddy or the foot of the foaming rapids or 
rush from the more sober depths to seize the 
fly that flits over the water; and when they 
strike it they dash away with unbelievable 
strength. Rarely we came upon the shed ant- 
lers of a caribou, more often of the moose, and 
sometimes came upon his track; one night a 
black bear prowled about our camp, snuffing and 
pawing at the empty tin-cans, and the deer were 
common. We frequently saw them grazing on 
the grass and water-plants, wading out into the 
water, or saw them swimming across an arm 
of the lake; and in many places the banks of 
the stream were so thickly dotted with their 
hoofprints as to remind me of the pastures at 
home, where the cattle tramped the bank of the 
149 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



creek to drink. One day I paddled upon one 
grazing, stealing upon him so noiselessly and 
without motion, when he chanced to look up, 
as to come within a few rods of him. At last, 
when he saw me and I shouted, he was so 
frightened that he could only leap up and down 
several times before he got under headway. 
But when he did — what an outburst of speed! * 
Here and there were the beaver-dams, thrown 
across some mountain-stream, and the quaint 
houses, and the creatures with seemingly human 
powers in the building of the dam and house 
with rooms, and in the storing of food, and the 
cutting of trees which were felled more accu- 
rately as to direction than any of us could do 
with an ax. 

The Indian and the wild animals seem at 
home: they adapt themselves to this life, they 
are a part of it; but it is a baffling proposition 
even for the most experienced woodsmen. 
(Since my visit, in the country to the northeast 
of where I was, Leonidas Hubbard, going with 
a party to see the migration of the caribou, 
starved to death.) They are playing with death 
much of the time. While we were there, the 
150 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 

superintendent of a considerable number of 
lumber-camps sent three of his best men — fore- 
men, who by skill and ability had won their 
positions — to explore the upper reaches of the 
Ghouli River and to plan for the winter's cut 
of pine, and locate camps and dams that might 
be necessary for the drive. I met the party in 
a strange manner. We had gone from our 
camp, several miles away, to a lumber-camp to 
spend Sunday with the two or three men, bosses, 
who remained there during the summer. Along 
in the afternoon I saw three men come walking 
down the track of the lumber-railroad. They 
looked like tramps, and I wondered and asked 
what those fellows would be doing in this 
country. The foreman looked and recognized 
them as men from another camp, and said, 
"Why, that's Inglee and his men; but what 
are they here for?" and hastened toward them. 
From them we heard the story, while the men 
in the camp got food and clothing for them. 
They told of their expedition up the unexplored 
river: The three men were in a canoe, making 
their way up some rapids, when a sudden swirl 
caught the canoe, whipped it against a rock, 
151 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 

and smashed it like an egg-shell. The men 
got out in safety, and one of the fellows — a 
reckless, dare-devil of a fellow — plunged back, 
dove, and succeeded in getting an ax and a 
plug of tobacco. All of their provisions were 
gone; they were far away from camp or man; 
it was a critical situation. Their best chance 
was to strike across the hills and through the 
forest to this camp, situated on another river. 
They were without path or map to guide them, 
having only a general idea that somewhere in 
this direction the camp was situated; they were 
playing the game, and they made it. They 
came staggering in that Sunday afternoon, al- 
most famished, bareheaded, and in rags. They 
had won in their gamble with life, and eating 
like wild beasts, they stopped now and then to 
laugh and twit one another about eating "pine- 
scones" and other unheard-of dishes. It was 
a part of their life, to be likened to a holiday- 
experience. To traverse those forests would be 
utterly impossible for a tenderfoot. Why, 
even with a guide to point the way and a stream 
to follow, I would shrink sometimes at the very 
thought of the bewildering country. A man 
152 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



could stand within four rods and less, yes, 
stand within two rods of the rude railroad or 
a wood road and not see it at all; and that 
means that he would be much more apt to wan- 
der into the forest than to the path of safety. 
Such density of vegetation is inconceivable to 
one only familiar with our Illinois forests. 

There are certain singular words that one as- 
sociates with these solitudes. One is immen- 
sity. This building in which we worship could 
be dropped out of sight in almost any ravine, 
our entire city could be lost in even the smaller 
valleys between the hills; and areas the size of 
Chicago, burned over by some forest-fire, 
seemed only a fleck upon the landscape. One 
becomes such a tiny creature, so helpless, so in- 
significant here. One day we coasted on a rail- 
road velocipede down the mountain-side for 
several miles. Here were the rails, and here 
and there a siding where logs had been loaded, 
and here was a vehicle, a man's work, but it 
seemed no more than the track of a worm across 
the sand. Everywhere were hills, stretching one 
above the other: some bald and white, some 
black with burnt stumps and logs, and others 
153 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



covered with the virgin forest; and between 
them the valleys, each of them containing its 
stream with swift current and tumbling waters 
as they leaped over the obstructing ledge. 

Another day, with our guide, we followed 
an Indian trail for several miles, from the lake 
where we camped to another that had no name. 
We went in a canoe down the river, shooting 
the rapids, and portaging where the waters 
leaped over the ledge or where the great trees 
fallen in one or two places had formed a tan- 
gled network across the river. We finally aban- 
doned our canoe and struck boldly into the for- 
est where the guide insisted there was an Indian 
trail, walking in the gloom and the shadow 
and the darkness because of the dense treetops 
that banded themselves together to keep out 
the sunlight. Once we found a cache, but did 
not examine the contents, considering sacred the 
unwritten laws of the wilderness, and near it a 
fragment of the skin of a black bear. Again, 
we found a horn of a caribou, sadly mutilated 
by mice and red squirrels, and came at length 
to the edge of another lake, across which the 
dusky Indians made their way in birch-bark 
154 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



canoes. And standing on the shore and look- 
ing across the blue waters beyond the bouldered 
islands which lifted their leafy heads out of the 
water, we saw still further on, the farther shore, 
and on beyond the forest where scarcely foot 
had trod and where the deer and moose were 
grazing, and still farther on to other lakes and 
other rivers and other forests, and on and on 
where feet had not trodden, to the land where 
the trees were stunted, not having breathing- 
time enough during the brief summer, and 
where trees refused to grow, and the snows lay 
from winter to winter and would not go away 
that the earth might warm and the flowers 
might bloom. Before us were the silent places 
of the north, without a twig to crackle beneath 
a foot because there was no twig to break and 
no foot to break it; and around us were the 
silent places of the north, oppressively silent, 
for there was no dog to bark, no cock to crow, 
no lowing of cattle, no shrieking of engines. 
Ten thousand men might have been scattered 
about through this wilderness and all have dis- 
appeared, making no impression upon this 
northland. Ten thousand men might have 
155 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



shouted with all their might, and received only 
the mockery of the reply of the hills. The 
mind refuses to calculate space and distance; 
it is bewildered and subdued by the very im- 
mensity of the northland. 

The word power is stamped upon every- 
thing. We are accustomed to the turning of 
a few wheels because of the laboring of the 
engine. In a day's tramp one sees more power 
lost and dissipated and wasted where the waters 
rush down the declivities and tumble over rocky 
ledges and, foaming like a fretting horse, rush 
through narrow grooves worn into the heart 
of the granite-rock or built out of gigantic boul- 
ders, than there is in all the engines in a large 
city. One reads of the molding of great can- 
non and the strength of their blows to destroy 
the walls of fort or to pierce the sides of battle- 
ship that may cross the path of their scream- 
ing missies, and then one looks at the mighty 
granite-hills with bared shoulders, and wonders 
whether the shoulders would be even slightly 
dented if man should train his guns upon them 
for a thousand years. One watches the swing- 
ing of the arms of the derrick as it lifts a weight 
156 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



of a score of tons into place above the ground, 
and then one thinks of the mighty arm of God 
which has lifted the weight of these forest-trees 
above the ground and holds them in place, such 
weight that he can not even conceive. And by 
the mighty power of God these hills have been 
built and forests built and lakes built and woven 
into the garment He wears. And then, by His 
mighty power He has thrown the garment of 
hill and forest and lake like a great mantle 
over the earth, His abiding-place. 

And one spells majesty there, letters made 
by hills and streams; majesty rather than beauty. 
It is too gigantic, too powerful, too overwhelm- 
ing to be called beautiful; it is majestic. One 
looks into the face of the lake with its waters 
so delicately tinted with blue that the pathos in 
his heart is aroused as he sees in them another 
world. The great boulder rises from the edge 
of the lake — a substantial, ponderous thing — 
and in the lake appears its reflection; the trees 
of great bulk and strength form a protecting 
girdle about the lake, and another forest of 
equal size stands inverted in the waters. We 
do not notice the broad-winged eagle with 
157 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



snowy head as it sails above us, but we see it 
sailing in the water beneath us. Here is an- 
other world. We can not hold it in our hands, 
we can not feel it; but in the pathetic blue of 
the water held in this hollow bowl God has 
made, mingled with proper proportions of sun- 
light God pours into it from heaven's beaker, 
we can see it, another world of perfect form. 
It is not material, but it is real, like the spirit- 
world we see around this earthy world reflected 
from the hearts held up to God into which He 
has poured His light and love. 

But I saw the word MAJESTY most plainly 
written from the top of Shepherd's Mountain. 
It may not have been a mountain technically — 
I had no measuring-devices to ascertain — but it 
seemed like one to my puny mind; I named it 
because it towered above Shepherd's Creek, and 
one day I climbed to its summit. Without a 
compass I would not have dared to venture into 
the woods from the camp by the creek. Such 
climbing ! — hills and ravines, boulders and gul- 
leys, thickly standing trees and fallen trees, and 
worst of all, "shintangle," a creeping evergreen 
that well deserves its name. There was plenty 
158 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



of sweating and hard breathing, but reward at 
last. Coming to the top, I crept out to the 
edge, that the view might be unimpeded. 
There was a sheer drop of several hundred feet 
below me, and then a very steep incline, so that 
the rock I pushed over the edge struck far be- 
low with a hollow thud, and then with great 
leaps and bounds and reverberations hastened 
to the level below. The effort of the ascent 
was well worth while. Far below me was the 
main valley with the stream appearing here and 
there, a succession of pools and rapids. The 
water was as clear as crystal, but with a tint of 
brown, as though it had caught the lingering re- 
flections of the faces of tawny Indian maidens 
who had looked long and wistfully, hoping that 
it might carry the sound of the dip of the pad- 
dles of loitering lovers. Across the valley the 
hills were climbing, higher and higher — for 
miles and miles a succession of hills and valleys. 
Here and there were burnt areas, denoting the 
destruction of countless thousands of feet of lum- 
ber; but in the greater prospect they appeared 
only as slight blemishes upon the landscape. 
But the forests! Some of the hills were still 
159 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



covered with pine : mighty, lordly trees tower- 
ing above the other vegetation, appearing like 
leaders and inspirers of the mighty host; and 
an occasional one among them even taller and 
grander was the sentinel. And then there were 
the great masses of spruce and hemlock and 
balsam, and the birches and maples and beeches, 
and other deciduous trees. These distinctions 
were plain enough near at hand; but as one 
looked farther away, differences blended, until 
he looked out upon only a sea of green across 
whose face great waves and troughs of waves 
seemed moving as the clouds swept across the 
sky. 

Here was shadow, but out yonder the sun 
was shining, making the scene resplendent with 
its glory. A long time I lay and feasted my 
eyes upon the scene, the majesty of God. At 
length the time to descend had come. Through 
a huge fissure in the rock I made an almost 
perpendicular descent, holding myself by the 
rough granite on either side, coming at length 
to broken fragments, some of which went tum- 
bling down beneath my feet — some peril, per- 
haps, but the panorama was worth all that it 
cost, and more. 160 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



And here was apparent unity. There were 
no evidences of rival ownership here ; not even 
a seed had been planted or valley sown with 
grass that God had not done. There were no 
evidences of discord or dispute. Every thing 
that was seemed to belong to the whole, as the 
various wheels and springs seem to belong to 
the clock and to each other. It was a unit, a 
whole, symmetrical and harmonious. 

During those weeks the wilderness had a 
message for me : a message about God and His 
love, a message that was everywhere and all the 
time being delivered, but sometimes more 
plainly spoken than at other times because I 
was more in the mood for hearing. 

"To him who in the love of Nature holds 
communion with her visible forms, She speaks 
a various language — from all around, earth 
and her waters, and the depths of air, — comes 
a still voice." 

Moses and Isaiah and Jesus heard it from 
mountain and desert and growing tree; and I 
heard it: a definite, positive, inspiring, exhil- 
arating message. One day on the bank of an 
unnamed lake we found the camp of a trapper. 
11 161 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



The forest-fire had swept across this spot and 
had burned the camp and either destroyed the 
trapper or, more probably, had caused him to 
flee for his life. About the place were traps 
and weapons and other equipment, the partly 
burned hide of a moose upon a stretcher or 
frame, and near by at the edge of the lake, in 
the water, a canoe. We appropriated it for 
the day, and embarked upon a voyage of dis- 
covery. When noon came we landed upon a 
beautiful island for lunch and rest. This island, 
like the others in that part of the world, seem- 
ingly consisted of one huge boulder, nearly as 
large as a city-block, that had been dropped by 
the ice-floes of the glacial period, I suppose, 
here in the middle of the lake. Vegetation had 
gradually obtained a foothold, until now there 
were large trees and shrubbery and grass grow- 
ing over most of the surface, with patches of 
the bare rock showing here and there. 

After lunch the guide lay down to smoke his 
pipe and doze, while I slipped away to the other 
side of the island to be as far away as possible 
from the only man I am sure who was within 
many miles of this spot. On the edge of the 
162 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



rock above the water I lay down upon a carpet of 
pine-leaves which had fallen through the years 
from the trees above me; lay down not to sleep, 
but to dream and drift, and drift and dream. 
And as I dreamed, I floated out upon the wa- 
ters of the lake which lay before me for several 
miles and which sparkled like many jewels as 
the breeze sported with its dimpled face, and 
then I floated on above the forest that girdled 
me round with its foliage. I was in the center of 
a great bowl, and yonder on every side were the 
forests clothing the hills that stretched away 
toward the horizon and toward heaven. I 
floated back across the ages to the time when 
these hills had not been made, but when, by the 
Written Word, the Spirit of God brooded over 
the face of the earth, and I saw it all: the 
mighty Builder, with ice-floes for derricks, 
moving the great rocks across the face of the 
earth, dropping them here and there where He 
needed them and where He desired them. I 
saw the gigantic, fiery furnaces into which the 
crude materials were thrust, and out of which, 
heated and tempered in the furnaces of God, 
there had come this igneous rock, this granite 
163 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



out of which these hills had been builded; I 
saw Him plowing the face of the earth with 
granite-hills and leaving the furrows into whose 
hollows these beautiful lakes had gathered their 
limpid waters; again I drifted back across the 
centuries to the present, but the Spirit had not 
departed, God was still brooding over the hills 
and forests as He brooded over my mind and 
led me to worship Him and sing His praise 
with lips that were dumb in His presence. 

It did not matter that no church or human 
company was here : God was here, and these 
waters and hills and trees were clapping their 
hands in praise of Him, their Maker. 

"There are flowerlets down in the valley low 

And over the mountain-side, 
That were never, praised by a human voice 

Nor by human eye descried; 
But sweet as the breath of the royal rose 

Is the perfume they exhale ; 
And where they bloom and why they bloom 

The good Lord knoweth well." 

And in that hour I scarcely knew where I tar- 
ried or whether, as Paul said, "I was in the 
body or out of the body;" but this I knew, that 
God was around me and underneath me, and 
164 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



there, away from all mankind, I was in His 
very presence. 

There was only one voice I heard : the voice 
of God. Nearly everywhere there are two 
voices, or at least the voice of man; and so 
often we listen to these grating, boastful, dis- 
cordant sounds, and are deaf to the voice of 
God. We hear him boasting of his works, and 
forget that God is the Doer of things. We 
see man lifting the sheaf of wheat, and forget 
that God has lifted every sheaf of wheat into 
being; we forget the mountains of God when 
we are looking at the pyramids, and we admire 
the temples erected by man's labor and shut 
our eyes to these mighty temples whose Maker 
and Builder is God. 

Pardon me if I even compare man with God 
in speaking of these things. If comparison is 
called for, then man shall be compared rather 
to ox and bird and tree and flower, God's crea- 
tures; and not to Him who is the Maker of 
us all. But here was no confusion of tongues. 
Look where I would, listen as intently as I 
might downward toward humanity, there was 
no human testimony to break the stillness, no 
165 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



human mark or deed to obtrude its puny pres- 
ence upon the handiwork of God. Here was 
proof, age-long, of God's work and interest 
and care; evidences enough of furnaces in which 
quartz-rocks were melted, ice-floes upon which 
they were transported; evidences of sculpturing 
of valley and canon, of hill and mountain; evi- 
dences of selecting of proper material for the 
hills, strong enough to support the burdens they 
carried, pliable and fertile enough to melt be- 
neath rain and sun and give root to the abun- 
dant vegetation. God was not far away, and 
here were paths that were leading to Him. 

Everything was conspiring to teach the way 
to God. On the edge of the island, a foot or 
two above the water, I found the nest of a 
loon. Out in the lake the parent-bird, fright- 
ened away by my presence, was swimming and 
diving, now showing its black coat marked with 
squares of white, and now disappearing. There 
in the nest lay two baby-birds, the brown shells 
near by; the little birds, covered with black 
down, were just out of the shell and seemed 
so tiny and helpless. But when I drew near 
they tumbled down the bank into the water and 
166 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 

glided away, paddled away upon its bosom as 
gracefully as a swan. They were able to do 
it because they were fashioned of God to rest 
upon its bosom, to live in its waters. As I 




A TINY BIRD ON GREAT WATERS 

watched the splendid adaptation of tiny bird 
to great waters, I said, "How perfectly God 
has adapted the bird to its home!" And then 
I said, and say to you, that God has fashioned 
man, however weak and helpless he may seem, 
to find safety and refuge and shelter in Him. 
167 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



Instinctively the baby-bird turned to the bosom 
of the lake for safety, and instinctively I turn 
to God, overcoming the hindrances, that I may 
rest upon His bosom. 

The wilderness taught me that somehow we 
may find our way to the City of God. I had 
been going down the Ghouli River, stopping 
now and again to cast the flies across some 
foamy pool or beyond some sheltering rock to 
lure the speckled beauties from their hiding- 
place; then pushing on through the bushes and 
trees, clambering over tangled logs or log-jams. 
Evening was coming on ; I was deep in the val- 
ley and hardly knew how far I had gone, and 
in the obscurity and bewilderment of the forest 
doubted whether this stream, so quickly disap- 
pearing, swallowed up, would ever find its way 
out and guide me through. In order to get 
my bearings I climbed a steep hill; coming to 
the top, I looked into the valley out of which 
I had clambered. Here and there was a 
glimpse of the stream, but soon disappearing; 
and I said it is lost, it has no destination, it is 
swallowed up. And then I looked down the 
valley, and here and there could catch the shin- 
168 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



ing of the stream as the sunlight made its way 
through the rifts in the hills and fell upon it; 
and looked on beyond until far in the distance 
I saw the blue waters of Lake Superior and the 
river flowing into it. And I said, "It is not 
lost: it has found its way to its resting-place; 
for God made it not to be lost, but to arrive." 
And then I said, "I too will arrive." Some- 
times the valley seems deep, the way seems be- 
wildering, and life seems to be confusion and 
uncertainty. But standing upon the hilltop and 
looking down the valley into the sea, I thanked 
God for the rifts in the hills, for the light of 
His presence that shines into our hearts to illu- 
mine the way, and for the city yonder in the 
distance, the City of God, toward which and 
into which He seeks to lead every child of His, 
not willing that one shall be bewildered or lost. 

Oh ! I know that some would have stood by 
my side and cursed the day that brought them 
to these hardships, to the hills and logs and 
rocks and scanty fare. 

"A cowslip by the river's brim 
A yellow cowslip was to him, 
And it was nothing more." 



169 



THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS 



But this too I am sure of, that God desires 
to open the eyes of the blind and unstop the 
ears of the deaf, and would be with us in the 
midst of His groves and hills and streams and 
lakes, that there, as everywhere, He might 
teach us that He is our Maker and our God, 
and that we might come to praise Him and go 
with Him, even to the City. 



170 



VI 

GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



"Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for 
gold where they fine it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and 
brass is molten out of the stone. God setteth an end to dark- 
ness, and searcheth out all perfection. There is a path which 
no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen : 
the lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion 
passed by it. He putteth forth His hand upon the rock; He 
overturneth the mountains by the roots. He cutteth out rivers 
among the rocks; and His eye seeth every precious thing. He 
bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing bringeth 
He forth to light. But where shall wisdom be found ? And 
where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid from 
the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the 
air. Destruction and death saith, We have heard the fame 
thereof with our ears. God understandeth the way thereof, 
and He knoweth the place thereof. For He looketh to the 
ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; to 
make the weight for the winds ; and He weigheth the waters 
by measure. When He made a decree for the rain, and a 
way for the lightning of the thunder; then did He see it, 
and declare it; He prepared it, yea, and searched it out. 
And unto man, He said, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is 
wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." — Job 28. 



VI 



"God said." — Genesis 1:3. 

GOD has grown amazingly through the 
" centuries. From time to time some 
man of great intellect and great heart 
has discovered God in some new way, and then 
blind eyes have been opened and other men 
have recognized that God was greater and 
more comprehensive and with more faculties 
and powers than had been dreamed. Abraham 
discovered that God was not a bloodthirsty 
monster, feeding upon the blood of children; 
Moses discovered that God was law-abiding 
and orderly in the world and in dealing with 
men ; Job discovered the presence of God in ad- 
versity as well as prosperity; Jesus did not dis- 
cover, He knew from the beginning, but He 
disclosed to men the love and Fatherhood of 
God. And so not suddenly and completely, but 
gradually, our knowledge of God has been ob- 
tained and will be obtained through the cen- 
173 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



turies to come. But from the beginning of 
humanity the one God that every man has rec- 
ognized (or shall I say, the one quality in Him) 
is the God of Power, the God of Force; and 
the God which men in our time fear and sub- 
scribe to is Jehovah; however uncertain about 
qualities of tenderness and mercy and love, 
however doubtful about personality and will, 
every man of sanity recognizes Jehovah. It 
is this God, the Eternal Force, of whom I speak 
to-day. 

God is present everywhere and all the time. 
Running back through the ages, following the 
paths which students have marked out in their 
investigations in different fields, we everywhere 
come across the mighty Jehovah in His work- 
shop ; we find Him busy everywhere, He stands 
at the beginning of things. The fields are pro- 
ducing their harvests of corn and wine and oil, 
and there would be no harvests if there were 
no fields where the sun graciously shines and 
the showers moisten the earth. But the fields 
refuse to accept responsibility. There would 
be no fields if continents had not been thrown 
up out of the water, and there would have been 
174 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



no continent if there had been no earth, and 
there had been no earth if there had been no 
solar system, and there had been no sun and 
brood of planets if there had been no star-dust 




WORKSHOP OF THE MIGHTY JEHOVAH 



or space filled with surging atoms, and there 
had been no surging atoms if there had been 
no energy, and there had been no energy if 
there had been no God. We have reached the 
end and the beginning. We are standing by 
the side of God the Eternal Force and look- 
175 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



ing toward the future, and we follow the mar- 
vels of creation : star-dust and sun and planet 
and land and sea and field with waving grain 
and stalwart corn, because God was there and 
God said that these things should be, and there 
came to be what had not been. 

I walk out again into the presence of the 
present, the presence of things that are NOW 
being done. Here are trees on whose branches 
Some One, a Mighty Force, is building fruit; 
here are gardens in which are being built vege- 
tables of many kinds by Some One not to be 
compared with or measured by any power of 
man, the Omnipotent One; here are rivers in 
whose depths fishes are being built by a Mighty 
Force; here are mountains on whose sides great 
forests are being built, and here are seas on 
whose bosoms waves so mighty as to play with 
man's greatest ships as though they were child's 
blocks are being fashioned. Everywhere is the 
evidence. This is not man's power or within 
the range of man's power: this is superhuman; 
this is Omnipotence; this is God saying things. 

God is Force in action. He is busy every- 
where and all of the time. Men have thought 
176 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



they were busy, toiling in the fields or the mines 
or the forests or the warehouses where they 
have stored God's provisions, or the marts of 
trade where they huckster in God's produce; 
they have grown wan and pale and nervous and 
morbid because of tasks undertaken; they have 
come out of the mine grimy and blinded, and 
have cried for less work; they have gone from 
the desk or the counter or the office or the 
schoolroom and have protested against being 
overburdened. The insistent and righteous de- 
mand is for shorter hours, more play, more va- 
cations. Why righteous? Because they are 
men, frail and weak and fragile. But God the 
Eternal Force is at work all the time. He never 
leaves the field, always at work, day and night, 
summer and winter, growing things or making 
ready for another harvest; never leaves the 
forest, always busy caring for the trees He has 
builded and is building; never leaves the mine, 
always busy holding the mountains in the hol- 
low of His hands and fashioning their contents 
into gold and silver or coal and iron. 

God is saying how things shall be, and they 
are as He says. Men speculate about the mak- 
12 177 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



ing of continents: the cooling of the earth, the 
submergence of a great area to form an ocean- 
bed, the upheaval of a mountain-range to form 
the skeleton of a continent, and in fascinating 
language they tell incidentally how it was 
done, and sometimes forget to tell PRIMARILY 
that it was done because God the Eternal Force 
said. Men speculate about the ten tribes of 
Israel: where they went, how they could have 
disappeared so completely, and whether they 
have left descendants in some of the more re- 
cent peoples of the earth, and why they wan- 
dered away from the homeland; and may for- 
get to tell us that it all happened because God 
said. Men write of the Battle of Waterloo, 
and compare the merits of different leaders and 
different armies, and only Hugo remembers to 
say that the battle was lost and won by the 
decree of the Almighty. 

Men and women are spending late hours in 
the dance-hall or in carousings and suffer the 
headache because God has made a system of 
laws to govern our bodies and has written a 
system of penalties for the infraction of those 
laws. An epidemic sweeps through a commu- 
178 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 

nity, the dread disease entering home and tak- 
ing away members of the families in death : for 
the community has been careless about cleanli- 
ness; and heaps of unremoved garbage, the un- 
kempt alleys, the polluted waters have been the 
forerunners of disease : for God has made a 
system of laws of health, and penalties for their 
violation. And only by rigorous infliction of 
these stern measures are men being urged to 
learn these hidden truths and to do the things 
they ought to do, and so are being urged along 
the path of progress. 

To the one who perseveres, who is patient, 
industrious, temperate, diligent, there comes re- 
ward. A man is diligent at his books, toiling 
long and late, and denying himself the pleas- 
ures that would interfere with his tasks, and he 
gains knowledge and enriches the world with 
his learning; a man is frugal and industrious 
and persevering, and with the passing of the 
years the farm grows in fertility, the fences and 
buildings improve, his wealth is accumulating; 
a man applies himself to the task of cultivating 
his heart, endeavoring to uproot every thistle 
and thorn and to plant in their stead those 
179 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



things which shall produce "the peaceable fruits 
of righteousness," and with the passing of the 
years the man grows in grace, his moral fiber 
improves, his character strengthens in ways of 
genuine manhood. And all of these things are 
true, because God has said that they shall be. 

Man speaks, and we are left in doubt and un- 
certainty; for we must wait to see whether he 
speaks the truth. He may propose to deceive; 
he may be interested in a business transaction 
and foolishly imagine that he can enrich his 
life by dishonesty, by misrepresentation. God 
speaks, and we may well know that there is no 
uncertainty in the way of fulfillment: for is it 
not written that "not one jot or one tittle of 
the law shall pass away till all be fulfilled?" 
And again, is it not written that, "though the 
mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind ex- 
ceeding small." Man may be mistaken. The 
jurymen freed the prisoner accused of murder 
because they believed him and he swore that 
he was in another place at the time of the mur- 
der, and had lying witnesses to corroborate his 
alibi. 

But God is not mistaken, and He speaks the 
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GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 

word to the conscience of that man, and the 
hounds are unleashed and set upon the trail of 
that man; and though he may fly to the ends 
of the earth, he can not escape the haunting of 
that murdered face. God stamps upon his brain 
the words "murderer, assassin," and their echoes 
resound through the corridors of his mind 
by night while he sleeps and by day while he 
works. Wherever he goes, God has been there 
and is there before him, saying, "Thou shalt 
not kill," and saying, again, "The soul that sin- 
neth, it shall surely die." Man speaks intend- 
ing to speak the truth, but may be in ignorance, 
or is powerless to execute the decree. He says, 
"I will do thus and so next year;" and the year 
comes, with its blooming of flowers and singing 
of birds, and there is a new mound in the cem- 
etery, and the plans are unfulfilled. God 
speaks, and day and night, time and eternity, 
present and future leap to do His bidding. 
There is no uncertainty in the voice of God. 

God's word is manifesting itself everywhere 
in motions. He speaks, and the tides heap 
themselves in great bulk and hurl their bulk in 
sportive glee against the mighty coast-rocks. 
181 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



He speaks, and the winds are moving now so 
gently as to scarcely make a ripple upon the 
pond or a quiver to the aspen-leaf, and again 
in sturdy gusts that rock the forest-tree or sweep 
across the pond and drive the waves like fright- 
ened sheep before the dog. He speaks, and 
the clouds are in motion, now so light and mov- 
ing so gently that one can scarcely see that they 
change their position at all, and now scudding 
before the wind like sailless ship before the 
storm at sea. He speaks, and the water is rip- 
pling among the pebbles or lazily loitering be- 
tween grassy banks on its way to the sea, or 
leaping with merry laugh adown the ledge, or 
climbing into the sky, or beating the shrinking 
earth with falling raindrops. Everywhere is 
quiver, is stir, is motion, for everywhere the 
world is busy doing the things God says shall be. 

God says that there shall be impressions in 
the mind through the senses. A man walks 
through the field and hears the baying of a 
hound on the trail of a rabbit, and the lowing 
of cattle wending their way to pasture-gate, the 
chirping of insects in the grass at his feet, the 
whir of wings as a prairie-hen springs from her 
182 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 

nest, the call of a quail from the top of a post, 
the echoing notes of the distant whip-poor-will, 
the scream of the hawk high in air. He has 
pictures enough in his mind for an art-gallery; 
and such an art-gallery it is, of the forest yon- 
der, rich with the spring-growth of foliage ; the 
lone tree with the wild grape clambering over 
it; the sturdy thorn-bush, the gravel-bank, and 
the windflowers decorating its crest; the level 
reach of grass with buttercups and dandelions; 
the garter-snake with its black and yellow 
stripes that crosses his path; the gopher that 
sits erect and whistles, and then in wild alarm 
pitches into its hole ; the hairy woodpecker that 
hammers a noisy welcome and then scurries 
away in wild flight; the crow jumping for a 
grasshopper or sedately walking and peering 
for some bit of food! The fragrance of the 
sweet brier is wafted to him from the distance ; 
the wild grape makes him wild with joy as he 
catches its sweetness; and the roses and the 
clover and the mint add their bewitching odors. 
And he has these sensations of sound and sight 
and odor, and carries them home with him be- 
cause God is about, making the brain receive 
183 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



and appreciate, and making the things to be 
seen and heard and smelled to the joy of man. 

In the beginning God said that there should 
be, and there were new creatures on the earth, 
new trees and new fishes and new birds and ani- 
mals. And God is still saying, creating things; 
and as a result of God's presence and power 
new species of insects and fishes and birds are 
coming into existence. God may take a long 
time for their making. A new form may drift 
very slowly from the type, and may require 
many generations to get far enough away and 
become distinct enough to rank as a new species. 
It does not matter whether God is pleased to 
take few or many days; the noteworthy thing 
is that God is still around, doing things, things 
that have never been done before. 

And God is looking after the things He has 
done and made through the past ages, seeing 
that there is food to eat and water to drink and 
air to breathe. God is sustaining the body of 
man so that for years it goes along doing its 
work, bearing its burdens, enduring its trials. 
Sometimes there is a man who works at his 
task so hard and long it reminds us of the bat- 
184 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



tleship of our navy just returned from its long 
trip around the hemisphere, coming into harbor 
with coal-bunkers empty, with machinery ex- 
hausted and wrenched. But as the bunkers will 
be filled and the machinery readjusted and put 
into fit condition, so the man recuperates from 
his labors, renews his strength, takes on new 
life, and we speak admiringly of the vitality of 
the man. Do we remember that man's vitality 
is but another word for expressing what God 
has done for man, what energy and endurance 
and resistance He has packed into the machinery 
of that body? 

Everything that is made God has made. 
Perhaps no one thing should make us admire 
Him and fill us more with wonder than another 
thing; but as we look over the ages that have 
passed into history, written or unwritten, there 
are certain great creations that stand forth as 
of surpassing importance. 

Now, we know that the tree with its fruitage 
of acorns or young birds was not built by a 
few definite certain acts, such as the making 
of root, of trunk, of branch, of leaf and fruit 
and fastening them together. We understand 
185 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



that there has been a gradual growth from the 
tiniest beginning until now. Yet as we look 
at the tree these words stand out in prominence 
as the chief parts of the tree. So we under- 
stand that God has not made our world by a 
few definite acts, each separate and independent 
of the other, but that there has been a gradual 
building, a gradual unfolding, like the unfold- 
ing of a flower or tree. But it is also true that 
certain words in the account of the creation of 
the world stand out with startling distinctness. 
And we seem to realize more clearly how the 
doing of these things would call for the un- 
rivaled power of God. 

God spake, and matter came into existence. 
I pass by any theories concerning the relations 
or conditions of matter, any philosophical as- 
sertions or theories. I am satisfied to think of 
it now as the mind normally and simply does, 
the material out of which things are made, 
"world-stuff," "ground-substance," "star-dust." 
It is the raw substance, the "earth without form 
and void" of Genesis ; not after it has been made 
into burning sun and heartless moon and whirl- 
ing planet, into sea and land, mountain and val- 
186 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



ley, boisterous crag or delicate snowflake or 
gleaming crystal of quartz. Indeed, any form 
that the crude material assumes, absolutely, in- 
flexibly requires the word of God; but the mind 




THE TREE WITH ITS FRUITAGE OF YOUNG 
BIRDS 



rests more easily upon these root-terms. As a 
man says, if he has the pile of lumber he can 
make the chair or desk or table or stand or 
house, but he can not make the tree from which 
to obtain lumber. It is a fallacy of the mind, 
187 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



but many have said that if only they have mat- 
ter and the laws of nature to start with, they 
can account for the making of sea and land, for- 
getting that every law of nature is the written 
word of God and that every sun that is fash- 
ioned or every snowflake is God in action. 

So to this man I say that we will stand in 
the beginning by the side of God, when there is 
nothing else: no sun or world, no matter or 
space, no time, only God, the Eternal God, 
Eternity. And looking from that distant point 
toward the day in which we live, we see the 
coming into being of the "star-dust" in what- 
ever form it may have been, coming into ex- 
istence because God spoke. 

We look again, no matter how many ages 
may have passed in the shaping of matter by 
God into various forms; we look again, and 
there is life, for God has done another mighty 
thing in the forward journey of the world. We 
do not speak of any particular form of life, 
whether the crudest that lives in slimy waters 
or the more complex of brilliant bird and beau- 
tiful flower or of man himself; but life that 
will work itself out into myriads of forms if 
188 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



God will but speak the word, the "ground- 
substance" out of which all of these forms will 
come. Life has come into being because God 
has spoken. 

We look on still farther, and now there is 
consciousness : whether the lowest knowledge 
of rude life which knows only what is food and 
what is warmth, or the knowledge of the bird 
which knows when the night has passed and the 
light is breaking through the eastern skies and 
it warbles its matin in field or orchard, or the 
fox which knows the track of the rabbit, com- 
ing across it in the snow, and sets out in pur- 
suit of it, or the broader knowledge of man 
ending in libraries and inventions and discov- 
eries; here is Consciousness, the underlying fac- 
tor in all of this, and we are beholding another 
great step in advance that has come by the word 
of God. 

Again we look, and conscience has come 
into being: whether the crude conscience of the 
Indian who comes across the cache of his rival 
who has left there the pemmican or venison or 
parched corn against the day of his return from 
distant journeyings, and the conscience of the 
189 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



red man speaks to him, and he says, "I will not 
take the food of my rival, for his very life de- 
pends upon it, and it would be unfair; I ought 
not to take away the morsel of bread that will 
prevent his starving to death;" or whether it 
be the developed conscience of the Christian, 
who not only says, "I ought not to take what 
belongs to my neighbor," but who also says, 
"I ought to feed my neighbor who is hungry, 
and clothe him who is naked; and I ought to 
do good to him who hates me," — does not 
matter. Another factor has entered the world, 
and another long step has been taken in the 
upward climb of man, for out of conscience has 
sprung justice and mercy, unselfishness and 
brotherhood, as well as morality and the re- 
ligions of humanity. And conscience has 
come because God has spoken the word. 

Another word remains to be spoken. From 
that beginning when God only was, we have 
come a long journey, but we have not come 
to the end of the journey or reached the brow 
of the hill. Looking around upon this world 
with all that we have found in it springing from 
matter and life and consciousness and conscience, 
190 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



we are still in perplexity and despair, for here 
is neither appreciable plan nor purpose nor jus- 
tification, and we must content ourselves with a 
''Riddle of the Universe." But God did not 
leave us with an unsolved riddle on our hands. 
He spoke again, and the Word was made flesh 
and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory 
of God. He spoke, and the heavens opened 
and the Son of God came to earth to give an 
answer to the riddle, a meaning to all that God 
had done hitherto. 

Leave Christ out of the equation, and we 
look upon what may be a building, but a build- 
ing standing unfinished, without a purpose; 
leave Christ out of the equation, and we look 
upon the body of a man with limbs and trunk, 
but without head and only a question-mark in 
place of a head, or the face of some horrid mon- 
ster. Some men have tried to remove Christ 
from the story of creation, and as a result they 
have taken us into the woods and lost us and 
themselves there. What infidel has given us 
an answer to our questions, has given a worthy 
explanation to creation as we see it? But God 
did not leave Christ out of the equation. He 
191 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



who had builded a temple with its material sub- 
structure, its foundation of life, its walls of 
knowledge, its arches of conscience did not leave 
it unroofed or unfinished, but gave Christ to 
the world, the Completion of His plans, the 
Answer to our questions, the Explanation of 
creation. 

God has been speaking and doing things from 
the beginning that we might have a home — a 
home with its burdens, for we need them to 
make our muscles strong and to brace our spir- 
its : but a home of cheer and victory, because 
we can bear the burdens and endure the heat of 
the day; and a home of love, because Christ 
is with us as our Guest, to cheer and lighten 
and make strong for the battle and make tender 
toward the unfortunate. 

From the beginning God was thinking of 
man, saying, "Let us make man in our image." 
When He was at work upon suns and worlds, 
upon prairies and ocean-beds, He was thinking 
of the time when He would have children in 
the earth to sing His praises; when He was 
covering the earth with growing things and 
creeping and flying things He was looking 
192 



GOD THE ETERNAL FORCE 



ahead to the time when these things would be 
a delight to His children. 

And the fullness of time is here, and His 
Son has come to tell us of the Father's love and 
care, and His hope that we will appreciate His 
love for us and enjoy the world He has made 
and love His other children and make our lives 
free from defiling things and sin of every kind. 
And in our extremity He has not forgotten or 
forsaken us. He who spoke worlds into ex- 
istence and made life on the earth is ready and 
waiting to speak new life into our souls. Even 
now the Christ who came to seek and save the 
lost, who came with all power given to Him, is 
ready to come and make us strong, to give us 
so much life that we can throw off the sins that 
seek to infest our hearts and the temptations 
that everywhere beset us; and while it is well 
for us to know much about the works of God 
in the world, may we not forget that this is the 
great work of God, that we might know Him 
whom He hath sent. 



13 



193 



• VII 
PATHFINDERS 



PATHFINDERS 



"And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah 
opened the window of the ark which he had made ; and he 
sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the 
waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth 
a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off 
the f ace of the ground ; but the dove found no rest for the 
sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, 
for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he 
put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto 
him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days, and 
again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; and the dove 
came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was 
an olive leaf plucked off ; so Noah knew that the waters 
were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other 
seven days ; and sent forth the dove ; which returned not 
again unto him any more." — Genesis 8 : 6-12. 

"The cormorant and the bittern shall possess the land; 
the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it. The wild 
beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of 
the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech- 
owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. 
There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, 
and gather under her shadow ; there shall the vultures also 
be gathered, every one with her mate. Seek ye out the Book 
of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall 
want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and His 
spirit, it hath gathered them." — Isaiah 34:11, 14-16. 



VII 



"There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the 
vulture's eye hath not seen." — Job 28 : 7. 

THERE is a path which no fowl knoweth 
and which the vulture's eye hath not 
seen, and there are eyes given to men 
— some men — which see the path known to the 
vulture, and which also see the path which 
leadeth to the presence and heart of God. The 
man who speaks the poetry of this text and who 
feels the poetry of the divine life in his heart 
is such a man. 

Is it true that we must be born with the 
faculty of seeing the wonders of Nature? 
Many insist that poets come to their greatness 
as a matter of birthright, and not of drudgery; 
insist that one with the rare ability to command, 
to organize, to be an executive, must be born 
with that gift. Is it true that one who follows 
the bird in "its boundless flight," that one who 
looks with awe upon the mysteries of the uni- 
197 



PATHFINDERS 



verse, does so from the beginning? Or is it 
true that here is a faculty universal, belonging 
to every man, but lying dormant, uncultivated, 
unknown perhaps, requiring only to be discov- 
ered and uncovered and exercised to be given a 
chance ? 

All folks have eyes; but with many of them 
the eyes are a sham, a mere pretense, as deceiv- 
ing as the marble veneer over the rough bricks. 
In Jesus' time it seemed as though blind men 
sat by every wayside. In our time blind men 
are thronging our streets, are crossing our 
thresholds, are staring vacantly into the face of 
the sky, into the face of the forest, into the face 
of the orchard. Having eyes, they do not see; 
nay, they do not have eyes. Something is lack- 
ing. The flesh is there, the cornea and iris and 
pupil, the crystalline lens, the aqueous humor 
and vitreous humor, the retina and optic nerve, 
but the spirit is lacking. And without the spirit 
of seeing the flesh of seeing is weak. 

These blind men gazing upon the dandelions 
adorning the field in early spring, displaying 
beauty enough to make a seer weep for joy as 
they catch the golden sunshine and reflect it 
198 



PATHFINDERS 



back from their own faces, each blossom a nug- 
get of glistening gold set in a field of emerald- 
green, and each blossom of the flower-cluster 
a work of technique, a work of art; these men 




THE VULTURE'S EYE 

Young Marsh Hawks 



say, "Humph, a lot of weeds." Gazing upon 
the hulls of God's fleet of battleships as they 
come into vision on the distant edge of the hori- 
zon and plow their way so majestically from 
horizon to zenith, maneuvering for position as 
199 



PATHFINDERS 

they sail in the great blue ocean above us, the 
blind man says, "Humph, going to rain; ugly- 
looking black clouds ; let 's get in the house and 
close the door and draw the curtains." But the 
curtains are already drawn. Gazing on the 
place where waters lurk in quiet pasture-pools 
and give birth to reed and rush and sedge, which 
make music all the day, instruments of many 
strings breathing music when blown upon by 
the gentle breeze, where birds sing to the morn- 
ing-sun and the frogs at twilight pipe to the 
rising moon, and the muskrat thrusts his nose 
across the quiet pond and breaks its surface into 
many circles; he says, "Humph, nothing but a 
swamp and mud and weeds and frogs ; let 's go 
where we can get something to eat or where 
we can see something." Such folks are to be 
pitied who shut themselves away from and who 
are blind to the beauty and grace and fragrance 
and music with which God has satiated His 
world. But though they are born blind, there 
is hope that, as Jesus long ago touched the eyes 
and they were opened to see, so now these eyes 
may be touched and made to see by waiting upon 
the works of Christ, by waiting upon the paths 
200 



PATHFINDERS 



of God, by keeping company with such men as 
Job. 

Here is a man whose book would be worthy 
of its place in the Bible not only because He 
kept his confidence with God, but because he 
had so much to say about God's world. He 
talked of the stars and the groupings of the 
stars, Arcturus and Orion and the Pleiades; he 
talked of the rain and snow, of the hail and 
frost, of the balancings of the clouds, of hawk 
and eagle and bittern and owl; of rabbits and 
wild goats, of lions and lion's whelps, of be- 
hemoth and leviathan. And it will be worth 
our while to stand by the side of this man and 
look out upon the paths that are seen by eyes 
of birds and the paths that are seen by the soul 
of man. It may be that the mystery and unex- 
plainableness of the wisdom displayed in this 
world by the creatures of this world may lead 
us to look with eagerness for the highway which 
God "hath cast up for His children to walk 
in," to find it, and to walk therein. 

Birds are remarkable pathfinders. Peter was 
cautioned against calling anything common or 
unclean that God had made, but we constantly 
201 



PATHFINDERS 



repeat Peter's blunder. We have called the 
vulture vulgar and unclean, glutton and scaven- 
ger, feeder upon filth and carrion, and our 
empty words have framed our prejudices and 
blinded us to the wonderful instinct of this bird. 
But Job had seen what we might see in our own 
land. He had been among the hills where the 
sheep were pastured. Some lion had crept upon 
the flock without being detected by the shepherd, 
and had struck down the helpless sheep, had 
satisfied its hunger, and had left the remnants 
of the carcasses to decay, a disagreeable odor 
to nostril, a menace to health. 

And while Job had stood on the hilltop look- 
ing upon the wreckage lying yonder in the val- 
ley, he had seen a black speck appear over the 
top of the distant mountain, miles away, and 
grow larger as it came nearer. Then from an- 
other quarter another black speck appeared; 
across the plain, behind him, others appeared. 
Here and there, perhaps from every point of the 
compass, these objects came in sight, so many 
miles away that they seemed like flakes of soot 
hanging in the air. But as he watched they grew 
larger and came nearer, until he could see the 
202 



PATHFINDERS 



steady beating of wings like the marching of 
the feet of soldiers, until he could see the head 
steadily dividing the air; and then one by one 
these birds dropped on the ground by the side 
of the mangled corpses, made their meal from 
the fragments, and did man a service, these 
scavengers of God appointed to keep the earth 
sweet and clean. 

But this man was thinking not of that service, 
but of the mysteries involved in the coming of 
the birds. Without chart or compass each had 
found its way to the desired spot. Each eye 
had seen the path, each bird had kept the path. 
We wonder at the wizardry of the wireless tel- 
egraphy, the flashing of unseen messages along 
paths which only God has made. But here is 
more wonderful wizardry. What was the mes- 
sage that went flying through the air, across 
valley and plain, over hill and mountain, tell- 
ing of the creatures slain, of the banquet pro- 
vided? What was the message which gave di- 
rections, routes, so that these birds were not 
lost in the intervening forests, were not diverted 
by the hills? In our ignorance which we are 
slow to acknowledge we suggest that perhaps 
203 



PATHFINDERS 



here are eyes wonderfully adapted for far- 
seeing, or we talk of the powers of smell ac- 
centuated so that these birds can smell death 
twenty miles away. If these theories be true 
(and they are only theories: we do not KNOW 
how these things are) we ought to be dumb in 
the presence of Him who can put such marvel- 
ous ability into such creatures. In our endeav- 
ors to cloak our ignorance, to deny our igno- 
rance, let us not foolishly lose the wonder of it 
which Job felt that day; the vulture's eye sees 
a path through the blue sky, stretching from 
his aerie on the hillside to the distant place 
where the food is provided. 

The birds are marvelous pathfinders. At 
present they have practically left us, an oc- 
casional chickadee or woodpecker or crow or 
blue jay or shore-lark lingering to tell us that 
they will come back; but they have gone. 
They are visiting in Southern States or Mexico 
or South America. But in a few weeks they 
will commence drifting back from the South, 
heralded by the honk of the wild goose and 
accompanied by countless twitterings from 
countless throats. Now, we are so> accustomed 
204 

•J 



PATHFINDERS 



to this, it is so common, that our eyes and 
minds are closed to the amazing wonder of it. 

Think a minute. In Central America is a 
tiny bird, little larger than your thumb, one of 
the dainty warblers. Last year it was hatched 
in some Canadian forest. Last autumn it went 
South along the eastern mountain-ranges. One 
spring morning the migratory-instinct becomes 
dominant. Perhaps it has been restless for 
days; but this morning it sees a path leading 
up the Mississippi Valley basin to the Canadian 
forest. Though it has never been over the 
road, it starts on its journey. Here are hun- 
dreds of bewildering miles, great forests and 
great plains. The bird is not a student of ge- 
ography, can not read mile-posts, carries no 
atlas, has no compass, is not familiar with the 
territory. Nay, apparently it does not even see 
the territory, for it travels mainly by night. If 
you will stand out-of-doors some May evening 
and look at the moon, you may see it for a 
brief moment as it darts across the face of the 
moon. Day after day as the migratory spirit 
moves it, it drifts northward, feeding as it lei- 
surely goes, or hurrying in flight as though fear- 
205 



PATHFINDERS 



ing it might be late. Not lost in the forests, 
always knowing where the North lies; not be- 
wildered by the network of rivers, on and on 
it drifts, and one day it "arrives." 

Or look, again, at the golden plover. It nests 
in the far North, almost under the shadow of 
the north pole. It winters in Patagonia, nearly 
a half-world away. When it gets ready to go 
it springs into the air, sweeps out over the 
ocean, and far out of sight of land it makes 
that flight the length of the Atlantic, and alights 
only when it has reached the end of its journey. 
Can we explain these great mysteries? I am 
familiar with the theories about the young birds 
being guided by the old birds, about the need 
of headlands for guidance, about the food- 
question, about the far-away influence of the 
glacial period. If any of these theories are 
proved, the wonder would not be lessened how 
that God could put such wonderful powers, 
either quickly or by slow development, it does 
not matter, into these tiny creatures. But these 
theories are not proved; they are but poorly- 
woven cloaks for our ignorance. We do not 
know how these things are, but we know that 
206 



PATHFINDERS 



they are; and it will be well for us with open 
eyes and open hearts to look upon this wonder- 
ful thing, that God can build paths for these 
birds and can give these birds the power to find 
and keep the path. 

Man has this pathfinding instinct. In 
Cooper's novels of the frontier life the "path- 
finder" is the man who is able to see the path 
that does not exist, so far as the ordinary 
man is concerned. He moves swiftly through 
brushy thickets, up hills, across streams. You 
see nothing : he declares he sees a path the moose 
has made. Outside of the tent you see the grass 
standing undisturbed. This man sees the path 
of the red deer, the black bear, the gray squirrel, 
the white-footed mouse, the lumbering porcu- 
pine. You look at the swift waters of some 
Northern stream, with protruding boulders and 
hidden reefs, with eddies and whirlpools, and 
say there is no chance for a canoe to go through 
without being crushed by the mad river. He 
looks and sees through the maze of rocks and 
eddies and foaming waters a path, and with 
paddle in hand he follows that path like a 
rocket, follows the path as it turns quickly, 
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PATHFINDERS 

swerves swiftly through eddies, around rocks to 
the quiet waters below. He sees these paths 
because his pathfinding instincts are not blunted; 
they have been exercised and developed until he 
has beceme a normal animal-man. The bulk 
of us without this power to see the paths 
about us, are not normal. We are abnormal; 
these faculties have degenerated through disuse. 
Civilization may do many good things for us. 
. It weakens and destroys many of our keenest 
faculties. The red man sees the points of the 
compass on the trunks of the trees; moss and 
flower as well as star and sun point him un- 
erringly to the path he must take to the desired 
hunting-ground. The path is there for the man 
who has eyes to see. 

In the natural, material world God has 
laid the boundaries and marked the paths, 
and has builded faculties in His creatures en- 
abling them to follow the paths. God's hands 
may be invisible, but God's handiwork is 
everywhere manifest. The world is filled 
with the works of God, the wonders of 
God, the miracles of God. He gives power 
to the eye to see, and He decrees, "Thus far 
208 



PATHFINDERS 



shalt thou see, and no farther." He gives 
strength to the legs of a horse, and He limits 
the power, saying, "Thus fast shalt thou run, 
and no faster." He gives genius and skill to 
man to invent the machine that will climb the 
steeps of heaven, and He limits the heights to 
which man can climb. Everywhere are the 
paths, material paths, God hath made; and 
everywhere is life with ability to follow the 
paths. Some folks are dismayed at the thought 
of miracles, impossible things. Why, every bird 
that sees and keeps the path across the continent 
is a miracle, an unexplainable, impossible thing. 
Instinct is but a name for wisdom and cunning 
which God through the ages has packed into 
these creatures. God is the Maker of the path, 
and God is the Giver of the pathfinding instinct. 
So all life, bird or horse or man, has its limits, 
its boundaries, its ways decreed. 

This path for all life is sensuous, depending 
upon eye and ear to find, upon muscle and fiber 
to give strength to follow, upon some passion 
to urge to follow. This path is material, be- 
ginning with the mystery of birth, when in some 
way which only God understands and can do, 
*4 209 



PATHFINDERS 



life and dust strike hands and set out along the 
path; ending with death when the journey is 
finished and life flits away, God only knows 
where or how, and the dust falls back upon the 
bosom of mother Earth. This path of life re- 
veals strength and energy, agility and cunning, 
fear and savagery, and many another passion; 
but nowhere along this path will you find the 
word "behavior." Squirrels, finding the store- 
house where some other squirrel has placed the 
nuts for winter use, steal them, but do not call 
it stealing; the spider mimics a withered leaf 
or gay flower, that it may seize the unsuspect- 
ing insect, but does not call it deception. The 
stag will steal his neighbor's wife without 
thought of immorality, the hawk will kill the 
dove, and there is no murder in its heart. There 
are no Ten Commandments along the sensuous 
path. 

And we are sensuous creatures, creatures of 
dust, creatures of time, of animal energy and 
animal passion. We do things without taking 
"behavior" into account. The cave-dwellers of 
England drive out the wild beasts from the cave 
with the same spirit displayed as when the larger 
210 



PATHFINDERS 



bear drives out the smaller from its own cave; 
and the Indians overrun the mound-builders' 
territories, the Huns invade Europe, or our 
fathers, the Saxons, invade the land of the Celts 
with the same spirit displayed in the migration 
of the moose or the marmots. Much of our 
activity is of the flesh, much of our journeying 
is along the path of the flesh, and in this we 
are following the path which God made when 
He made us as other creatures out of the dust. 
We know these paths as the birds know them, 
for they are the decrees of the Almighty. Job 
understood these things: that birds have their 
lives decreed by the Almighty, and that man 
has his earthy life, animal life, along the same 
lines — paths which he follows because of the 
way in which God has made him of the dust. 

But he also knew that there were other paths, 
higher paths, unknown to the vulture, the fowl 
of the air; paths which man knows or might 
know, along which he might be guided by the 
will of God. What he endeavored to say is 
what Bryant endeavored to say: 

"Whither, midst falling dew, 

While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, 
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue 
Thy solitary way? 

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PATHFINDERS 



"Seek'st thou the plashy brink 

Of weedy lake or marge of river wide, 
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink 
On the chafed ocean-side? 

"There is a Power whose care 

Teaches thy way along that pathless coast — 
The desert and illimitable air — 
Lone wandering, but not lost. 

'Thou art gone, the abyss of heaven 

Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart 
Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given, 
And shall not soon depart. 

"He who, from zone to zone, 

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 
In the long way that I must tread alone, 
Will lead my steps aright." 

Job is looking beyond the vulture's flight 
from mountain to valley, away to the soul's 
flight from the celestial mountain "to the 
island-valley of Avilion, where falls not hail, 
or rain, or any snow;" looking beyond the flight 
across the continent to the flight across the 
heavens to the realm of perfect day ; looking be- 
yond the flight of bird fleeing from storm and 
cold to the flight of man fleeing from storm and 
pain and sorrow and crying, away from the 
flight of bird that lasts but a few days to the 
flight of the soul out toward the eternities, away 
212 

i 



PATHFINDERS 

from the paths along which flesh follows to the 
paths along which the spirit of man journeys 
or may journey. 

We are looking now not at the paths along 




; 



WHITHER DOST THOU PURSUE THY SOLITARY 
WAY? 

which God's creatures walk, but at the path 
along which God walks. God is a Spirit, and 
they that worship Him must worship Him in 
spirit and in truth ; God walks in a spiritual path, 
and they that walk with Him must walk in the 
213 



PATHFINDERS 



spiritual way. There is a path that is not 
builded of rock and clay, of atom and ether, 
or measured by time and terminating in death. 
There is a spiritual path along which God 
walks, builded of righteousness and holiness, of 
justice and mercy, of tenderness and pity, of 
compassion and love. This highway begins in 
eternity and ends in eternity. There are no 
clocks along the way, with doleful ticking to 
alarm us with the thought that life is fleeing. 
Along this way it is always morning, and we are 
always facing the noon of the day ; there are no 
almanacs to tell us that summer is past and the 
chilling blasts of winter will soon be upon us : it 
is always spring-time, and we are always facing, 
running toward the days of June; along the 
way there is no city of the dead: but before us 
the city of the living; no rolling of the mourn- 
ful waters of death : but the flowing of the wa- 
ters of life. God's path has no limit. Here 
there are limits everywhere: the wall of the 
house, the setting of the sun, the dropping of 
the sky into horizon, the close of the book; the 
limit of the spirit-world is forever. Here we 
drop the hand of our loved one when it grows 
214 



PATHFINDERS 



tired and death comes; there, there is no death. 
Here we grow tired of earth's business; there 
they do not grow tired of the King's business. 
It is the realm where God dwells, the path 
along which God runs and does not grow weary. 

And what came into the mind of Job that 
day was, that there is a path which leadeth to 
God's Kingdom and to God Himself, unknown 
to the vulture's eye, that may be seen by the 
eye of man, that may be walked in by the feet 
of man. We are big enough to walk in two 
paths. Man is bigger than the clay he molds, 
the mountain he tunnels, the sea he crosses. 
Man holds these things in his mind, his heart, 
and is bigger than the things he holds, and must 
be. Napoleon with mind big enough to con- 
quer the Alps, to plan for the making of the 
Alps but a footstool for the feet of his march- 
ing soldiers, is bigger than the Alps ; Columbus 
holding the mighty storm-tossed Atlantic from 
Spain to the West Indies in his mind, is bigger 
than the ocean he humbles. Man given domin- 
ion over the earth, and asserting that dominion, 
is bigger than the earth he subdues, with its 
atom and ether, its energy and force, its life 
215 



PATHFINDERS 



and death, including his own animal existence. 
Man looking away to the stars, climbing to the 
stars, reaching out toward God, is big enough 
to walk in two paths. He walks the path of 
the dust, for God made him of the dust; but 
he also walks the path of the spirit, or may walk 
it, for God breathed into him the breath of life 
and made him a living soul. 

We are more than vultures. I resent the 
barren, dying claims of the materialist that man 
is only a vulture-kind, with a life of the flesh 
and no other life, with paths of earth before 
him and no other paths. The birds in their 
earthy lives display cunning and skill and ability 
to do that tax our credulity, that baffle our 
powers of understanding; they bear proof 
enough of the intelligence and wisdom and 
ability of God. But they are one-talented, and 
we make mistake by humanizing them and 
bringing them up to us or dehumanizing us 
down to them. They are one-talented, we are 
ten-talented. There is an intellectual path along 
which the bird does not pass; it does not know 
and can not know, or be a student of Greek or 
Euclid, or understand the intricacies of the spec- 
216 



PATHFINDERS 



trum analysis. When Job marveled at and 
studied about the wonderful instinct of the bird, 
his mind was flying into heights inaccessible to 
birds. And when Job was thinking of the great 
God who was Creator of bird and man, he was 
flying to still more inaccessible heights; and 
when he bowed down and worshiped Him, or 
when he sought comradeship with God and 
sought to walk with Him along the spiritual 
way, he was utterly beyond the flight of fowls 
or the flight of the earthy man. 

The reaching out of a man after God, the 
flying of the soul toward Him, the walking with 
God, is as real and comprehensible as the mi- 
gration of the birds. We may not know how 
it is, but the proof is found in this : that mul- 
titudes bear witness that they can walk and do 
walk with Him in the green pastures and beside 
the still waters of the Kingdom. It is no odds 
that some folks are not walking in this path 
this day; some folks are not at church or at 
their prayers, are not living clean lives; some 
folks are not in health because of sin ; some are 
stupid and some are friendless because of sin; 
that 's no odds, these things are possibilities, re- 
217 



PATHFINDERS 



alities, though some may not be doing them, 
sharing them. There is a path which no fowl 
knoweth, which God hath builded for His chil- 
dren to walk in. We may not know fully the 
domain it traverses or understand the instinct 
which urges us to reach out toward God, or 
His power within us which makes it possible 
for us to walk with Him, any more than the 
bird understands all that is involved in the 
flights it makes ; but we know enough by giving 
heed to our true selves to seek after Him. 

We know enough to know that behavior is 
the big word along this pathway. Here is the 
Decalogue: along this road are commandments 
that pertain to every phase of life. Over 
against the temptation to be covetous, to be de- 
ceitful, to be resentful, to be proud, to be im- 
pure, is the urgent, insistent command, "Behave 
yourselves!" "Who shall ascend into the hill 
of the Lord or who shall stand in His holy 
place? He that hath clean hands and a pure 
heart." We know enough to know that it calls 
for a life of consecration to the best and holiest, 
the forsaking of many of the old scenes and 
pleasures as with the migrating birds to a dis- 
218 



PATHFINDERS 



tant land; it calls for reliance upon God as the 
Builder of the highway and the Builder of the 
instinct within us which urges us on toward Him 
and along the way where He is Comrade and 
Guide. We know enough to know that it is a 
way of love, the travelin'g of which makes us 
forget old enmities and grudges, makes us to 
refuse to quarrel, to answer the one who would 
quarrel, with a smile, "No time for this; I 'm 
bound for heaven." 

Oh! I am aware that many know only the 
paths which the fowls know, and are journey- 
ing the paths which the fowls journey; but I 
also am aware that God has made man for 
some better, higher thing than this. We are 
creatures of two worlds, and if we live in but 
one, it is our fault, not God's, who has built 
the way and built us with the image of God 
and the instinct to follow after Him. 

"There is a land mine eye hath seen 
In visions of enraptured thought, 
So bright that all which spreads between 
Is with its radiant glories fraught." 

"There, there on eagle-wings we soar, 
And sin and sense molest no more ; 
And heaven comes down our soul to greet, 
While glory crowns the mercy-seat." 

219 



PATHFINDERS 



Through the kindness of God, by His help and 
encouragement and guidance, I am trying to 
keep step with Him along the way which leads 
to purity, to spirituality, to the eternal day. 
And as I go I urge with all the urgency and 
persuasiveness of a messenger of God that you 
find the highway of God and with Christ for 
Shepherd you become one of the sheep of His 
pasture. 



220 



VIII 

DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 

"0 Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the 
earth! who hath set Thy glory above the heavens. Out of 
the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength 
because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy 
and the avenger. When I consider Thy heavens, the work 
of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast 
ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and 
the son of man that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made 
him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him 
with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion 
over the works of Thy hands ; Thou hast put all things un- 
der his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the 
field ; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and what- 
soever passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord our 
Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!" — Psalm 8. 



VIII 



"He shall bruise the head of the serpent." — Genesis 3:15. 

IT was a hot July afternoon. There were 
no clouds in the sky to temper the heat; 
there was no stirring of faintest breeze to 
break its monotony and intensity. The sun, 
nearly overhead, was pouring its ladle of molten 
rays upon the earth, the leaves were drooping, 
the corn was curling, and even the grass seemed 
dry and parched. That afternoon I was in the 
shadow of a little tent, with camera in position, 
peering through an opening at a bird's nest not 
far away. It was the nest of the traill's fly- 
catcher, built in the fork of a shrub willow, 
about six feet from the ground on the edge of 
a willow-thicket. During the past days I had 
seen the nest building, the nest with its four 
beautiful eggs, cream-colored, marked with 
small reddish-brown spots, the nest with its four 
newly-hatched birds, naked and so helpless, re- 
223 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



quiring constant attention. But to-day they 
were well-feathered and alert, and would be 
ready to leave the nest in a day or two more. 

I was interested in watching the family-life, 
the old birds frequently returning with the in- 
sect-food they had gathered in the adjacent 
thicket, adroitly learning which was the hungry 
bird to be fed, carefully cleaning the nest, keep- 
ing it sweet and tidy. But what interested me 
particularly to-day was the method by which 
one of the old birds kept the young birds suffi- 
ciently cool. The rays of the sun beat down 
upon the baby-birds, scarcely interrupted by the 
few leaves remaining above the nest. Some- 
times the bird would stand over them with 
spread wings, permitting the air to circulate 
and yet keeping the babes in the shadow. 
Whether that did not cool them sufficiently or 
whether the parent-bird was somewhat alarmed 
by the tent, I know not; but it would stand on 
the edge of the nest and beat its wings vigor- 
ously for perhaps five seconds or more at a time, 
thus fanning the nestlings, then fly away to the 
cool of the thicket, but soon return to repeat 
the operation after feeding one of the little 
224 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



ones. I was in God's great university, gaining 
knowledge at first hand. 

I noted too that there were but three babes 
left at home, and surmised the reason. It was 
so hot in the nest, and it was so crowded with 



THE SERPENT 



the rapidly-growing children, that one more ad- 
venturous than the others had left the nest, 
probably hopping from twig to. twig, a few 
feet into the thicket, for it was not quite old 
enough to fly. Now, birds ought not to leave 
*5 225 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



the nest until they are able to fly, ought to re- 
main under the parents' care; but this one had 
assumed responsibility for itself and had left 
the parental home, lured by the shade and cool 
of the thicket. The parents were not pleased, 
but were helpless. I could hear the subdued, 
anxious, scolding twittering as they fed the lit- 
tle prodigal, so that I knew it was there. 

Suddenly I heard the little bird's cries for 
help: piercing, pathetic, hopeless; the same 
pathos that is revealed all through the animal 
world under like circumstances, when a rabbit 
is caught by a dog; when an animal is caught 
by a trap "which sees the trapper coming 
through the wood;" when a wounded bird is 
caught by a hunter; and I knew the bird was 
in peril. The old birds were immediately at 
the place of danger. I could hear their wings 
beating and fluttering, and their screams — tiny 
screams from tiny throats; but seemingly with- 
out avail, for they did not cease. 

I was peering eagerly, intently into the 
thicket, suspecting the enemy, and succeeded in 
seeing the form of a snake hanging down among 
the branches. I went out of the tent hurriedly, 
226 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



seizing a stick as I scrambled among the shrub- 
bery, pushed my way into the thicket, and found 
my suspicions confirmed. A snake had crawled 
up among the willow-shrubs and had seized the 
young helpless bird, intending to devour it. 
What a revolting, pathetic picture ! To most 
people the serpent is hideous enough under most 
favorable circumstances, but it seemed doubly 
a hideous monster here. Its eyes were so cold, 
icy, steely, relentless, flashing defiance and 
threatening; its squirming folds sinister and 
stealthy in movement; its jaws rigidly set in the 
wing of the bird. And the little bird, torn from 
its perch, hanging helplessly in the jaws of the 
snake, helpless in spite of its flutterings and 
struggles, and its cries becoming more feeble, 
and the old birds helpless to make any impres- 
sion upon the vile monster in spite of their will- 
ingness to put themselves in its very grasp, and 
their beating it with their wings and threatening 
it with their cries. It was a doomed bird unless 
there was some one to help beyond itself and 
kin. 

I tried to frighten the snake, threatening to 
strike it with the stick: its eyes only flashed de- 
227 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



fiance at me, and it held its victim the more 
firmly; I struck it with the stick: it only tight- 
ened its hold; I knocked it to the ground: it 
dragged the bird with it, and started to crawl 
off into the thicket with its victim. And it was 
only when I put my heel upon the serpent and 
struck it over the head that it loosened its hold 
and crawled sullenly away into the brush. The 
little bird lay upon the ground, exhausted and 
panting but uninjured, for it had been seized by 
the big wing-feathers, which were wet from the 
saliva of the snake, but the flesh was not broken. 
The bird rested quietly in my hand, and when 
I put it back in the nest, the nest that had 
seemed too stuffy and monotonous for it before, 
in comparison with the luring cool of the thicket, 
it was now content to remain quietly until it was 
able to fly. When I came to the rescue of the 
helpless babe the parents had ceased their cries, 
and soon after I restored the little one to the 
nest it was cuddled down beneath the wings of 
the parent. My imagination may have sug- 
gested the thought, but it seemed to me that the 
parent-birds were grateful to the one who with 
his greater strength had come to the rescue. 
228 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



My sensations during the incident were pe- 
culiar. As I leaped out of the tent and hur- 
riedly clambered among the sprawling branches, 
there rang in my ears again and again the first 
great promise of help which God gave to man 



BENEATH THE WINGS OF THE PARENT 



in his need, concerning the mission of Christ, 
"He shall bruise the head of the serpent." And 
as I stood by the struggling bird I heard Him 
say, "I looked, and there was none to help; and 
I wondered that there was none to uphold; there- 
229 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



fore mine own arm brought salvation; and my 
fury, it upheld me." And it seemed as though 
bending over me and bending over the world 
was the colossal figure of Christ coming into 
the world to save the world from sin, and of 
Him it was being said, "He shall bruise the 
head of the serpent." 

We are so helpless before the serpent, and 
our helplessness drives us to despair. What 
thought has been spent upon this problem of 
evil ! Is there any man who has not tried to 
fathom its mystery, to give some adequate mean- 
ing for its existence, to answer the question as 
to why man must be preyed upon by this "mon- 
ster of so frightful mien." The theories are le- 
gion. The believers in the evolution of the 
world toward God believe that sin is a good 
thing; a good thing for a man to stumble and 
fali, for only in that way does he become sure- 
footed and strong and agile; a good thing for 
a man to be compelled to fight, for only thus 
does he become keen-eyed and resourceful; a 
good thing for a man to lose battles and suffer 
and be punished because of lost battles, and thus 
be driven to desperation, to renewed effort. 
230 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



And so, if the untried innocence of childhood 
passes away in shame, there comes a sturdy man- 
hood which has tasted defeat, but has come to 
taste victory as well. 

There are those who believe that sin is the 
remnant of the beast within us, which is to be 
overcome in the struggle of life. The mob 
seizes and burns its victim; it has reincarnated 
the wolf-spirit. A man selfishly hordes and 
builds larger granaries; he has reincarnated the 
tiger, which eats its fill and then watches by 
the prey to keep the hungry jackals away. And 
the removing of sin from our natures is the get- 
ting farther away from the beast-world. As 
Tennyson says : 

" I have climbed to the snows of Age, and I gaze at a field in 
the past, 

Where I sank with the body at times in the sloughs of a 
low desire, 

But I hear no yelp of the beast, and the man is quiet at last 
As he stands on the heights of his life with a glimpse of a 
height that is higher." 

Or sin is the residuum between the ideal set 
up by the leaders of humanity and the "common 
herd," as the masses have been styled. So we 
hold our conception of sin depending upon our 
231 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



position in the scale. If we have high ideals 
we look upon many things with loathing which 
are not disgusting and may even be pleasing to 
the multitudes. Then there are those who speak 
of sin as a great curse. It is the influence, the 
work of Satan; and one tells us that sin is in 
the world because God is helpless before Satan, 
which we find hard to understand; and another 
tells us that God is temporarily helpless, for it 
will take Him some time to conquer Satan, 
which is equally bewildering ; and another tells us 
that God permits sin temporarily for our good; 
and still another tells us that God can not help 
Himself, not that He is helpless before Satan, 
but He is helpless before man. He has given 
our destinies into our own keeping; He has 
given us wills, which may be set over against 
His own in defiance. We choose our own ca- 
reer; we can be obedient or disobedient, as we 
choose ; and therefore sin is of our own making, 
our rebellion and disobedience to God. 

But whatever theory we hold, the certain 
thing is that sin is here. About this there is 
no delusion. A man can shut his eyes to sense 
and facts, and say that "whatever is, is right;" 
232 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 

but he opens his eyes to see that whatever is, 
is not right, that the world is out of joint, that 
hearts are out of tune, that family-life has many 
a discordant note, and the community is not at 
peace. The problem of hunger is man's great 
problem in the physical realm. His great con- 
cern, the thing which he must concern himself 
about, is to see how the body can be kept from 
starving, how bread can be provided to satisfy 
its cravings. And man's great problem in the 
spiritual realm is the problem of sin, to see 
whether it be possible that the better life, the 
ideal life, can be kept from starving and dying, 
whether the hunger for righteousness can be 
satisfied. 

There are forest-fires that sweep across great 
areas, destroying vegetation, villages, human 
lives; terribly relentless forest-fires. And the 
fires of sin rage in our lives, damaging and de- 
stroying our ideals, our better motives, our de- 
sires for more unselfish living. It is not hard 
to conceive a beautiful world, a world in which 
Fatherhood and Brotherhood are the big words ; 
every man knows God and loves God and looks 
to Him for guidance and follows His bidding, 
233 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



and every man under the teaching of Christ 
loves his brother as himself. If God's pur- 
pose were in effect, then it were a beautiful 
world. 

The trouble with the business-world is SIN. 
In the business-world there ought to be honesty 
and truth and honor and co-operation. A man's 
word ought to be good without his note ; a man's 
attitude ought to be that of a friend, and not a 
foe. But in place of what ought to be we find 
abscondings and defaultings and cheatings and 
stealings and bitter competition, until we are 
sometimes driven to feel that we can not trust 
any one. The trouble with society is sin. In 
our social relations there ought to be friendli- 
ness and sympathy and cheering words and un- 
selfish regard for one another's welfare, and a 
helpful spirit, each counting himself the guard- 
ian of every friend and every acquaintance. 
But in place of what ought to be there are jeal- 
ousies and backbitings and slanders and betray- 
als. You do not need to be told how often 
social functions make it possible for the serpent 
to enter the Garden of Eden. The trouble with 
the family-life is sin. In the family-life there 
234 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



ought to be perfect confidence and fidelity and 
sympathy and love. But in place of what ought 
to be we find parents caring little for the chil- 
dren, and children growing away from the par- 
ents, and parents not caring for each other and 
false to each other, with the last chapter (no, 
not the last, but the next to the last) written in 
the divorce-court. The trouble with the indi- 
vidual is sin. The beaten paths of decency are 
too dull, and the old-fashioned life of morality 
is too monotonous, the willow-thicket is so lur- 
ing, so inviting, so tempting. Either deliber- 
ately and joyously or with reluctant consent we 
leave the proper paths for the forbidden ways : 
I know to do good, and do it not; I do the 
things I ought not to do. 

Great is our utter helplessness before sin. 
Often the serpent stealthily crawls upon us un- 
awares, and we are seized before we realize it, 
fastened in the clutches of some temptation. 
Often the serpent of temper, discontent, jeal- 
ousy, covetousness, selfishness, holds us in its 
grip. We make our protests, but they are so 
feeble; we make our vows and resolutions, but 
they are so easily broken; our struggles are so 
235 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



impotent, the serpent is so strong, our fate seems 
so certain. 

The Son of God came into the world to rescue 
us from the great enemy. God said of Him, 
"He shall bruise the head of the serpent;" and 
He said of Himself, "I am come to seek and 
to save that which was lost;" and again, "to 
preach the gospel to the poor; to heal the 
broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the 
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; 
to set at liberty them that are bruised." 

We welcome Him as the Redeemer, Savior 
of the world. He has come to bruise the head 
of the serpent, this monster with a million heads 
and more. Wherever there are human beings, 
in the home or on the street, in the social gath- 
ing or in the commercial world, in our out- 
ward living or in the secret places of the heart; 
where folks are old or young, rich or poor, 
known or unknown, in the East and the West, 
where men are white and men are black and men 
are brown : wherever men have gone in this wide 
world, there the serpent has trailed them, seek- 
ing to make them its victims; and there the 
Christ has gone, endeavoring to seek and to 
236 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



save the lost. And the day will come when so- 
ciety will be purified, humanity redeemed, and 
the earth filled with righteousness, because 
Christ has come to bruise the head of the ser- 
pent. 

Let us be more specific. There is no hope 
of a world-program, a general program, a social 
program that does not take the individual into 
account. Christ will save society and redeem 
the world by saving the individual. Society will 
be saved when each member of society has felt 
the redeeming help of Jesus Christ. It is the 
one sheep whose bleating He hears ; it is the 
one man whose cry He heeds. 

He puts His heel upon the head of the ser- 
pent, and I feel the loosening of the grip and 
a way of escape from the temptation is pro- 
vided. He adds His strength to mine, and to- 
gether we are able to tear loose the serpent's 
coils; He somehow increases my strength by 
abiding with me, giving me "the strength of 
ten," and I am able to beat back the serpent; 
He quickens my knowledge and increases my 
watchfulness so that I see the danger in the 
thicket and avoid it, so that I see the leadings 
237 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



of the pastime or amusement that assumes such 
an air of innocence and I shrink from the path. 
And somehow, after He has put His heel upon 
the head of the tempter, "whereas I was blind, 
now I see," and "I have become a new man in 
Christ Jesus." u Nay, in all these things we 
are more than conquerors through Him that 
loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither 
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature shall be able to separate us from the 
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord." 

The deliverance is at hand. Though I was 
so near that helpless, struggling bird I had not 
known its sore distress and dire need had it 
not cried out. But the moment it cried, my 
heart was moved to pity, and I hurried to the 
rescue. Christ is waiting to hear the cry for 
help. I do not say that He is in ignorance as 
to our sore condition, but He is helpless against 
our authority. How gladly He would come; 
but He can not come until I seek His help. 
"Would anybody refuse to cry out to Christ 
238 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



for help, for deliverance from sin?" you ask. 
Why, certainly; the multitudes do. Christ will 
give a man strength to escape from the awful 
clutches of the serpent drink, but the multitudes 
do not wish to escape; and one man I knew 
urged to a drink-cure was so anxious to get 
again into the clutches of this awful appetite 
that he deliberately rubbed himself with alco- 
hol to cultivate a taste above the result of the 
drugs used in his cure. Perhaps his plan was 
not really a help to that end, but that man de- 
liberately thrust himself back into the grasp of 
the curse. In our jail is a thief who had barely 
been freed from the serving of a sentence for 
stealing, until he repeated the crime. There are 
plenty of harlots who are such by choice; they 
will not leave the path of sin, though the op- 
portunity presents itself. 

People sometimes say, "Why does n't the 
Church do more?" It seems, with such a great 
organization, with such machinery, with such 
numbers of workers, it ought to double and 
quadruple its results for good. "Why does n't 
it do more?" And the answer comes swiftly, 
"Because the world will not let it do more." 
239 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



It is often ready to help, only to have its offer 
spurned; it often seeks to come to the rescue, 
only to meet with rebuke. Whatever may be 
said about the shortcomings, the Church is 
ready and anxious to do much more than it does. 
It warms its room for the unsheltered, it pro- 
vides entertainment for the destitute, it has 
words of cheer and comfort for the discour- 
aged, and it would gladly point the way to God. 
But before the refusal of the man who loves 
his sin, and who fondles the serpent that strikes 
at his heart, the Church is as helpless as Christ. 
The Church would be quick to hear the cry of 
the one in distress and come to his aid, and I 
am sure beyond any doubt or question that Jesus 
Christ would be doubly quick to hear and would 
be at his side before the words had ceased from 
his lips. 

He is so mighty to save. And therefore our 
need as Christians is to keep close to His side. 
Where He leads I can go in perfect peace and 
safety. And where He does not lead I have 
no right to go. "At Thy side there is fullness 
of joy, at Thy right hand there are pleasures 
for evermore." "Thou wilt keep him in per- 
240 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



feet peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, be- 
cause he trusteth in Thee." If Christ does not 
lead through the thicket and the desert and the 
wilderness, I have no right to be there; and if 
He leads, He will lead me through in safety. 
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou 
art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff, they com- 
fort me." He is so ready to save; and there- 
fore our need, those of us who have not yet 
called upon Him, is to hear His voice, en- 
treating, seeking, offering deliverance, offer- 
ing to rescue us from the serpent and make us 
free. 

Because He has kept His word, has heard 
my cry, has come to my deliverance, there is 
gratitude in my heart. If He has led me from 
the things of the world, and led me to the 
Father's house, I do not complain; but I praise 
Him with heart that overflows because of His 
marvelous kindness. And because He has set 
me free, in whatever way He can use me I seek 
to do His bidding, to serve Him, to tell of His 
greatness, His power over the serpent, His will- 
ingness to help, His swiftness to hear. 
16 241 



DELIVERING THE PRISONER 



Because He has bruised the head of the ser- 
pent that has threatened my life and thwarted 
my life, and has set me free, I cry, "Thanks 
be unto God which giveth us the victory through 
our Lord Jesus Christ." 



242 



IX 

AUTUMN GLORIES 



AUTUMN GLORIES 

"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, 
the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of 
the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. 
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of 
fire out of the midst of a bush ; and he looked, and behold, 
the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. 
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great 
sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw 
that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the 
midst of the bush." — Exodus 3:1-4. 

"Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. 
Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as 
a bird from the hand of the fowler. Go to the ant, thou 
sluggard ; consider her ways, and be wise : which having no 
guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, 
and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou 
sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?" 
— Proverbs 6:4-9. 



IX 



"The whole earth is full of His glory." — Isaiah 6:3. 



iHE autumn time has come, when leaves 



are thickly strewn and waters lurk in 



quiet pools and shadows image in their 
breasts. God is abroad in His world, enriching 
it and beautifying it and inviting His children 
to come out and walk with Him. Because I 
accepted the invitation I found Him at work 
in His field and woods. And along the Rock 
River and where the white pine grows I found 
this sermon. I offer no apology for inviting 
the Church-folk to leave this building and go 
with me to those places, that we may there wor- 
ship God and learn to know Him better. Rather 
would I chide the Church because it has ig- 
nored God's world so much, and so has missed 
much that it might have learned about Him 
and broadened acquaintance with Him. 

I speak as a friend of the Church. In the 
presence of her enemies I would be swift to re- 




245 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



sent attacks upon her from such a source ; swift 
to assert the truth that the Church is God's am- 
bassador and great representative on the earth 
to preach His Word and exalt His Son and 
build His Kingdom; swift to assert that the 
Church has been the great agency in the dis- 
semination of knowledge through its own serv- 
ices and the institutions it has founded for the 
propagation of the spirit of democracy through 
its own teachings and leaders it has raised up, 
the teaching of charity and brotherhood and the 
doing of deeds of charity. Here is a record to 
be proud of and only possible because the 
Church has walked with God and under God's 
tutorship. But the Church has its human side: 
it is made of flesh and blood, and therefore is 
prone to error and to shortsightedness. And it 
behooves the believer in the Church and friend 
of the Church to look with critical eyes at its 
shortcomings, that these may be corrected and 
the Church made still stronger for the building 
of the Kingdom of God. 

As a friend of the Church, I confess that it 
has made a mistake in quarreling with the men 
of science. This is one of the black pages 
246 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



in its history. Galileo was one of God's great 
men because of openness of heart and shrewd- 
ness of mind which enabled him to discover 
great truths concerning the planetary system to 
which we belong. But when Galileo declared 




WHEN LEAVES ARE THICKLY STREWN 



that the earth moves, the Church persecuted 
him and compelled him by threat of death to 
recant; i. e., to lie, to declare what he knew was 
not true. The Church discredited him in the 
eyes of the world. Galileo is dead and immor- 
247 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



talized, and the Church for this deed is dis- 
graced; for everybody to-day knows that Ga- 
lileo was right and the Church was wrong. He 
was learning something of God's method of 
doing things and thus helping the world to 
greater knowledge of God, and the Church op- 
posed the advance of truth. 

Darwin was one of earth's noblemen, gentle 
in spirit, brotherly in manner, seeking to know 
more of God's ways in the world. Darwin 
with his patient investigations and experiments, 
as well as by his conclusions, made in his theory 
of evolution one of the great contributions to 
our knowledge. The Church opposed him, de- 
clared him a heretic, denied his conclusions by 
arrogant assertion and not by evidence, and 
turned many a friend of the Church who was 
also a seeker after truth away from itself. 
Darwin is crowned as one of the great bene- 
factors of mankind; his teachings have become 
the viewpoint and basis of practically all schol- 
ars, and the Church is discredited for her per- 
secution of this man. 

The man or Church that fights against truth 
inevitably loses the battle. For the day there 
248 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



may seem to be victory ; but in the end men will 
believe what they see and hear, and prove by 
examination. Truth crushed to earth will rise 
again, though the Church be against it. We 
ought to see that the men of science are truth- 
seekers, patiently, persistently questioning how 
God has done things and is doing things; and 
we ought to thank God for these men and the 
contributions they make to our knowledge. 
"Have they not made mistakes? Are there not 
blunders all along the way? Are not the old 
text-books of science discredited?" Certainly 
these things are true, but the journey has been 
one of progress, the motive has been right, the 
lasting accomplishment has been great ; they are 
on the right track. "Have they not sometimes 
attacked the Church and ridiculed and opposed 
it?" Certainly, some men of science have done 
this, whether justified by the attack of the 
Church upon them or not. So now and then 
there is an ugly honey-bee in the hive, and it 
stings us when we come near. But that will 
not cause us to throw away the accumulated 
sweetness representing the toil of many workers, 
even though it was not meant for us. And the 
249 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



Church should appropriate to her own use the 
truth which these toilers in the field of uncer- 
tainty and perplexity and mystery gather and 
bring to the light, and should not scold but 
praise them, though it means that past opinions 
may need to be changed and faulty interpreta- 
tions revised. The truth of God is the legiti- 
mate property of the Church. 

Again as a friend I confess that the Church 
has made a mistake in ignoring the world in 
which we live. A man building a house would 
take into account the grounds where the house 
was situated. We have been building a re- 
ligious house, a theological temple, with Christ 
as honored Guest, and have practically ignored 
the world in which it is built. We have largely 
given the world over to the devil, finding him 
in burdock and thistle and flood and lightning, 
and seeing these things everywhere. Or we 
have ignored the world, counting it merely a 
place where we must eat and drink and sleep 
and get our living, but having no reference to 
the spiritual man. Now, the truth of the world 
is as divine as the truth of the Bible; the world 
is as genuinely a revelation of God, a teacher 
250 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



come from God, as the Bible; and when we 
interpret the book of Nature and the book of 
Scriptures rightly we shall find the same ser- 
mons, the same laws, the same truths on both 
pages. 




A WALK AMONG THE TREES 



So I urge upon the Church this day, and you 
men and women of the Church, that you seek 
after God out-of-doors as well as in, in leafy 
grove as well as in temple of stone. Let us 
seek God's truth everywhere and let us rejoice 
251 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



in God's companionship everywhere, and let us 
not blind our eyes to God's presence when we 
depart from the cloister and turn from the 
printed page. 

The earth is full of the glory of God because 
God is in the earth. Oh, He is everywhere: in 
church, in home, in worship, in prayer, in 
heart; but God is also in bush and tree, in flower 
and bird, in creeping vine and soaring eagle. 
God is everywhere : where daisies bloom, where 
lilies nod, where sunflowers stare, where wil- 
lows droop, where the great sea ebbs, where 
river flows, where streamlet ripples, dances, 
laughs, and sings. Some say that God is dead 
or sleeping or gone upon a journey; that God 
made the world and abandoned it in its travail 
as a faithless husband his wife. But though 
friend may desert friend, a merchant forsake 
his counter, a shepherd his flock, a mother her 
babe, God does not forsake His garden, His 
groves with their leafy curtains, His children. 
I love to be there because I am with the Father. 

Somehow there is such comfort and rest and 
peace away from humanity and near to Nature. 
I do not justify the life of the ascetic, the her- 
252 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



mit, the abandoning of the world to its sin and 
shame : 

"We are not here to dream, to drift. 
We have hard work to do and loads to lift. 
Shun not the struggle : face it ; 't is God's gift. 
Be strong, be strong." 

But, on the other hand, let not the heart grow 
calloused. And when the heart is depressed by 
the glamour, the guile, the wrong, the oppres- 
siveness and hate and bitterness, secret sin and 
flaunting vice, then it is our great privilege to 
turn away from man to Nature, to walk among 
the trees and by the brook and hear no words 
of fault-finding or scolding, of flattery or revil- 
ing, no oath or obscene jest, and see no drunken 
rioting or bestial conviviality, marks of the 
ravagings and fires of sin. 

"If thou art worn and hard beset 
With sorrows that thou wouldst forget, 
If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep 
Thy heart from fainting, and thy soul from sleep, 
Go to the woods and hills ! No tears 
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears. 
And here amid the silent majesty of these woods 
Its presence shall uplift thy thoughts from earth, 
As to the sunshine and the pure, bright air 
Their tops the green trees lift." 



253 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



The pity is we are so often blind to God and 
His truth in Nature. Here is inspiration and 
uplift, here are sermons and parables; and the 
multitudes are tramping them under foot and 
do not know they are there, blind leaders of 
the blind. I looked one day from the deck of 
the ship across the laughing waters of Lake Su- 
perior to the Pictured Rocks of the southern 
coast. Above the blue waters hundreds of sea- 
gulls were floating, tossing as the first great 
snowflakes preceding the storm are tossed about 
in gentleness. I saw the great grotto lifting 
above the beach, seemingly a playhouse of the 
gods, and on the huge bluffs of St. Peter's 
sandstone the art-exhibit. The frames across 
which the canvas was stretched were of whitest 
enamel and of various sizes, but truly hung, for 
the lines were perpendicular and horizontal. 
Through the powerful glass the pictures ap- 
peared as forest or plain, as mountain or valley, 
as river or lake, as trees with flocks of sheep be- 
neath them or as bodies of fighting-men. The 
sight was fascinating; there was hardly time 
to breathe. Why would not the vessel stop, 
that we might gaze and feast until satisfied? 
254 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



or, if breathless interest would break into words, 
that we might praise God for His matchless 
skill and for our privilege in having eyes to see 
and such wonders to see? And the folks beside 
me were disgustingly talking about their being 
such fools as to leave their dinner unfinished 
to see a pile of rocks stained by the weather. 
These folks are fit only to be city-folks, to look 
out upon smoking chimneys and dirty factory- 
walls, and hear only the screech of the switch- 
engines and the bawling of the vegetable-men. 
They are blind and deaf, deliberately so, and 
are not entitled to the beautiful world God has 
given us. The farmer has no business tO' be 
irreligious, nor the traveler, nor the one who 
has a chance to see the blue sky overhead, the 
green grass under his feet, the twining vine or 
leafy tree in his yard. 

But we are sadly in need of miracles re- 
peated of the opening of blind eyes. Men 
look upon forests and streams and see only 
wood-piles and sawmills and turning wheels 
and driving-belts. Women look upon delicate 
flowers and beautiful birds with envy, covet- 
ing them out of wicked hearts for hat or 
255 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



dress. The woodchuck climbs the fence-post 
along the meadow or the tree in the woods. 
The wise man sees and says, "I will turn aside 
and see this great wonder, why it does this and 
how;" the foolish man says, "It eats some 
clover and digs a hole in my field and is worth 
twenty-five cents at the court-house; I will kill 
it and scalp it." The wise man sees the crow 
nesting in the willow-row and says, "I will turn 
aside and see this great thing, what it is, how 
this sable bird builds its house and rears its 
young and gathers its food; will learn some- 
thing of the abilities with which God has en- 
dowed it;" the foolish man says, "I saw it take 
an egg, and somebody said it pulled the young 
corn" (and did not look closely enough to see 
that it was after the grubworms at the root of 
the corn) ; "I will climb the tree and pull off 
the heads of the baby-birds and shoot the old 
bird; they are worth ten cents apiece at the 
court-house." And this is done because we are 
blind and distrust God and His workmanship, 
and do not learn to know Him better. For if 
we know Him we will love Him; and we will 
know Him better and love Him more if we 
256 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



come to His world with open eyes and loving 
hearts. Then shall we see "the whole earth is 
full of His glory." 

If I were to write "The Confessions of My 
Soul," it would be to tell of buoyancy, of ex- 
hilaration, yea, even of intoxication when I can 
stand on a clover-bank or plunge into a field 
which reeks with the aroma of the wild-grape 
or the sweet-brier. To be with Nature does 
my heart good as for a lover to be with a 
maiden. I love all seasons of the year: the 
winter, when the snow flies fast and furiously, 
sweeping into every unprotected place, sifting 
into nook and cranny, piling over bush and 
rock and bank in the most fantastic shapes ; and 
the trees are stripped of leaves and no leaf dare 
show itself for fear of being nipped by the 
frost, but the sturdy branches will not yield, 
they only shake their fists in the face of the 
gale : the winter with the biting cold, when to 
escape it the prairie-hens bury beneath the snow 
and break through the crust with a whir when 
you have nearly trodden upon them, and the 
muskrat sleeps within the thick walls of the 
house it has built of mud and reeds; and the 
*7 , 257 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



Carolina woodpecker, strange anomaly of mi- 
gration in the bird-world, hangs upon the south 
side of the tree-trunk away from the stinging 
cold; and the rabbit creeps into some under- 
ground alley, leaving only the footprints be- 
hind to tantalize you; and the stream pulls the 
coverlet of ice over its breast as the drowsy 
sleeper pulls the coverlet over him. But it is 
not drowsy and not pessimist; for as one with 
tingling cheeks bends his ear to the brook he 
hears it singing away beneath the frozen crust 
in spite of ice and cold. And somehow the 
spirit of the singing brook creeps into my heart, 
and I dare to say that I too will sing in spite 
of the storm and bitterness of life. 

And when the spring comes, I love the 
spring, the time of adventurous daring, when 
hepatica and anemone, bloodroot and buttercup 
and marigold flaunt their colors to the winds, 
creeping to the very edge of the lingering snow- 
banks, defying frost and sleet and snow; and 
the robin with tawny breast from Southland sits 
upon the branch of the elm and sings, "Cheer 
up, cheer up," and will not cease, though the 
branch be coated with sleet; and the bluebird 
258 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



carols, "Spring is coming;" and the meadow- 
lark, bringing color for the first dandelion upon 
his throat, makes the air ring with his melody, 
"I 'm here; don't you see me?" And as the 
days pass, the flowers multiply and the birds 
abound and the apple trees burst into bloom and 
the spirit of adventure is in my heart and life 
is surging, leaping, and I am saying that I too 
dare to adventure, to do all that life demands, 
to go where the journey leads, to bear the load 
and sing the song God has for me. 

And I love the summer with its thick heat 
and surfeiting of flowers and birds. Summer is 
a hard-working plodder, the Martha among the 
seasons, busy about many things. There is not 
much singing of birds: they are too busy rear- 
ing the young, feeding and sheltering and car- 
ing for them; but they are so faithful to their 
appointed tasks. And the orchards have ceased 
adorning themselves with beautiful sweet-smell- 
ing flowers : they are too busy growing the fruit 
that by and by shall make pur barns groan with 
their weight; and the meadows are busy grow- 
ing the grass for the cattle, and the fields are 
busy growing the grain for the storehouses; 
259 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



busy, busy everywhere. And somehow the 
spirit of patient fidelity to appointed tasks gets 
into my heart and I take up the burden with 
new zeal and increased patience. 

And now, because it is autumn, I love the 
autumn best of all, fading, drooping, dying 
autumn. 

"They 's something kind o' harty-like about the atmusfere 
When the heat of summer 's over and the coolin' fall is here — 
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees, 
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees ; 
But the air 's so appetizin' ; and the landscape through the haze 
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days 
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock — 
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder 's in the 
shock." 

A stoop-shouldered old woman with rusty 
shawl about her shoulders and faded bonnet 
upon her head comes shambling down the road 
to the market-place, and upon her arm is the 
market-basket loaded and groaning with its 
weight of fruit and vegetables. And autumn is 
that stoop-shouldered old woman, with rusty 
garments of fading flowers and dying leaves. 
Here are the marks of age and of death. But 
the market-basket groans and bends nigh to 
breaking with the millions of bushels of wheat 
260 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



and corn and apples and pears, grain and fruit 
in such profusion that we can not number, and 
can only gasp our thanks to God, "who daily 
loadeth us with benefits." And this autumn 
day, standing in the midst of the beauty and 





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DYING LEAVES 



wonder of it, we may learn certain great lessons 
which will enrich our hearts and purify our lives 
and strengthen them. 

Autumn is a reminder of the close of life. 
Here are the marks of death: the fields are 
261 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



brown, the flowers are drooping, the leaves are 
dead and falling, the birds are abandoning it. 
How swiftly the days pass, and each day more 
leaves have fallen and more birds have flown, 
and the signs of death are more apparent! 
Autumn is as faint and staggering as an old 
man, faint and staggering toward the grave of 
winter. And in its presence I feel that the days 
of life are swiftly passing, that the winter of 
decay will soon come, and that these days must 
be crowded with labors that the harvest may be 
gathered, the fruitage may be abundant. 

Autumn is the time of preparation for larger 
life. In the field the farmer and gardener are 
selecting the best and strongest and most per- 
fect as seed for the new year ; in the woods God 
the Great Gardener is wrapping the buds in 
coverlets of down, and storing the sap of trees 
in underground reservoirs, and covering the 
acorn with fallen leaves and scattering the best 
seeds with friendly winds or flowing streams, 
assorting and selecting the best by means of 
frost and other wonderful natural agencies, 
wrapping roots with dying grass; for a new 
year will come, and God is getting ready for 
262 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



it even now. And looking upon these things, 
I see the need of preparation for the new life 
and the new year, casting aside the worthless 
to decay, saving and protecting and giving op- 
portunity to the best there is in life, that it 
may be the seed from which under the gentle 
keeping of God shall spring newness of life in 
the new year that is without end. 

And autumn is the time of judgment. Dur- 
ing the summer the lazy man, the wicked man, 
the squanderer of opportunity God-given, has 
loitered on his couch, has slouched at his job, 
has tarried long at the wine and in the evil 
place, and has laughed at the man who was 
early at the task, and who was toiling during 
the heat of the day, and who denied time to 
idleness and sin, saying that the day is far spent 
and the task is great. And while he idled and 
reveled in sin, the sun shone, the dews fell, the 
gracious showers watered the earth; spring 
came and went, summer came and went, and 
now the autumn is here, and the fields are scant 
with harvest, and the garden is luxuriant with 
weeds, and the storehouses are not full. Dur- 
ing the summer the wise man has been early at 
263 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



the task, has brought to it his strength of body 
and mind, has worked together with God as the 
sun has shone and the rains have fallen; has 
said "No" to the tempter of idleness or sin, has 
looked pityingly to the neighbor who was let- 
ting the days of golden opportunity pass, urging 
him in vain to his task; and when the autumn 
days are here the man looks upon a summer 
well spent, for the harvests are bountiful, the 
land has yielded abundant increase, the garden 
and orchard have added their treasures to the 
storehouses. 

Autumn is the balancing of accounts. Tears 
do not count, repentance does not count; labor 
when the summer is here, counts. The profli- 
gate man facing starvation and the industrious 
man facing plenty are, each after his kind, en- 
joying the fruits of their labors. There comes 
the autumn of life which is the judgment time 
of character. The one man has spent the sum- 
mer in the cultivating of wild oats, in riotous 
living, in idleness and carelessness, and the 
autumn brings him tears and regrets and impo- 
tence and trouble and shame and remorse. The 
life is overgrown with weeds and thorns and 
264 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



thistles, and tears of repentance will not bring 
back the spring time. The other man has im- 
proved the days, has learned the will and pur- 
poses of God, and has worked with Him. 
Sometimes the days have been weary days, the 
burdens have been heavy, the work has seemed 
void and without results, but the autumn comes, 
and the weeds and thistles and thorns have been 
kept out of the life, and the gentle fruits of 
righteousness and peace and love have been cul- 
tivated; and if he looks back upon the summer 
with any tears, it is only because he has not 
toiled even harder during the heat of the day. 
He enjoys the fruitage of a good life because 
he lived that life when the summer was here. 

Autumn is a reminder that the time of fruit- 
age comes and that God's treasures, intended 
for us, are without limit. The sparrows with- 
out higher aim than to twitter and loll in the 
dust are fed, and the lilies spending the day in 
showing their beauties are clothed. And God 
with higher purposes for us, declaring that we 
are of much more value than they, loads us 
with gifts above number. It is the fruitage 
time, and the ripened products of earth are 
265 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



proof enough of God's kindness in material 
ways, giving us a home with inexhaustible treas- 
ures. Standing in the midst of these, I see the 
higher, unseen world. 

These earthy treasures are but suggestive of 
the spiritual blessings that God has prepared 
and will prepare for His children. Here is 
encouragement that faith will ripen into reality, 
that spring time shall become harvest. Here 
is encouragement to the farmer, business-man, 
student, that if he will sow and toil, sow and 
toil, he will reap the harvest; encouragement 
to the reformer, that if the struggle is con- 
tinued against the evil of slavery or saloon or 
political corruption or oppressed womanhood, 
there will come deliverance; encouragement to 
the Christian, that if he will continue at his 
prayers, reading the Bible, companioning with 
Christ, and serving Him among men, there will 
come the fruitage of a noble character, victory 
over sin, rejoicing in righteousness and confi- 
dence in the perfect day that comes. 

Permit another suggestion this autumn day. 
God is a lover of beauty, and here is proof 
enough. To-day is the heart-ache of autumn 
266 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



because of departing glories : the birds are go- 
ing, the leaves are dropping, the fruit is falling, 
the ground is covered with a death-bed of 
leaves, many sad good-byes are being spoken. 
But autumn through her tears is brave, and be- 
fore the parting will have these days of resplen- 
dent glory and magnificence, and before we say 
good-bye to autumn and autumn friends we will 
look long and eagerly upon her gorgeous dis- 
plays, and will have grateful hearts to God, 
who is the Maker of it all and who loves His 
children enough to do this and more for them. 

It does not matter much where we stand, 
where we look, the beauty is everywhere; but 
because the other day I saw the native pine- 
woods of our State I will ask you to go> there 
with me before we go to our homes. I have 
seen the pines many times, having traversed 
them as a boy, having camped in their midst 
as a man, but never more charming than they 
were Thursday. That sight was worth going 
a thousand miles to see, was worth more than 
the riches of Croesus. There were three pre- 
vailing colors : red, yellow, and green. But 
these were blended and mingled in countless 
267 



AUTUMN GLORIES 



shades and tints. There was the great central 
mass of most intense green ; but on the borders, 
and creeping in here and there, were the other 
colors. Excepting blue and violet, all of the 
colors of the spectrum were represented. The 
oaks were gorgeously arrayed with garments of 
cardinal and maroon, of salmon and scarlet, of 
crimson and red; the blackberry and ash and 
elm were flaunting their banners of canary and 
lemon, of yellow and orange. To these colors 
add drab and gray, an occasional cherry and 
pink, and all the shades of green, from the dark- 
est olive to the lightest sea-green ; throw a great 
arch of blue overhead, with an occasional float- 
ing mass of white, and if you have the imagi- 
nation of a God, you may see the picture our 
eyes beheld. I have forgotten the sumach and 
the poplar, most brilliant of all. Moses saw 
the burning bush and turned aside to see. Here 
was not one, but scores resplendent with crim- 
son, brighter than the brighest flame, and God 
was there. 

And the poplars ! As their tops appeared 
above the surrounding trees, it seemed as 
though some Titan had taken great masses of 
268 



AUTUMN GLORIES 

yellow fleece and thrown them out of the 
heavens to float down until they should nestle 
upon the brow of the forest. The ground was 
covered with bushes; they must have been 
bushes, but it seemed as though the fallen leaves 
had stopped before reaching the earth and were 
floating and swinging in air. Unconsciously 
the hand drew upon the lines, the carriage 
stopped, — a deep breath, and — was it a sob? 
for we were standing upon holy ground, in the 
very presence of God Himself, and the sera- 
phim were crying, "Holy, holy, holy is the 
Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His 
glory!" And in the thought were the words 
of a greater, "Woe is me! for I am undone; 
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell 
in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for 
mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of 
hosts." 



269 



X 

MUCH SOWING AND LITTLE 
REAPING 



MUCH SOWING AND LITTLE REAPING 



''Behold, there went out a sower to sow: and it came to 
pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls 
of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony 
ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it 
sprang up, because it had no depth of earth; but when the 
sun was up, it was scorched ; and because it had no root, it 
withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns 
grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other 
fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and 
increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, 
and some an hundred. And He said unto them, He that 
hath ears to hear, let him hear." — Mark 4:3-9. 

"And He said, So is the Kingdom of God, as if a man 
should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise, 
night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he 
knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of her- 
self; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in 
the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he 
putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. And He 
said, Whereunto shall we liken the Kingdom of God ? Or 
with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a 
grain of mustard seed, which when it is sown in the earth, 
is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: but when it 
is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, 
and shooteth out great branches ; so that the fowls of the air 
may lodge under the shadow of it. And with many such 
parables spake He the Word unto them, as they were able 
to hear it." — Mark 4:26-33. 



X 



"Some seed fell by the wayside; some fell upon stony 
places; some fell among thorns; some fell into good ground 
and brought forth fruit." — Matthew 13:4-8. 



and drenched by April showers, and the sower 
is abroad marching to the trumpetings of the 
April winds and the pipings of the birds, scat- 
tering the seed everywhere : some of it by the 
wayside, some of it on the stony ground, some 
of it among the thorns, some of it on good 
ground, scattering the seed everywhere. 

And behind the sower, in the shadows illu- 
minated by the imagination, one sees the fields 
of the Great Sower and His gigantic figure strid- 
ing over the mountains and down the valleys 
and across the prairies and the waters of the 
great sea, keeping step to the music of the world 
and its creatures He has made. And He is 




E are beholding a familiar spring 
picture. The snows are melted, the 
earth is warmed by the genial sun 



273 



SOWING AND REAPING 



scattering seed everywhere : on rocky mountain 
and fertile valley, marsh-land and desert, to the 
south, where the burning sun would seemingly 
destroy all life; to the north, where the sting- 
ing cold destroys life; scattering seed every- 
where, trusting that some time, some where, 
there shall come a harvest. And the human 
sower is confident that there will be the harvest, 
that the sowing is not in vain, because he stands 
in the shadow of the Mighty Sower, who sows 
the skies with stars and sows the world with 
many things, and has his confidence begotten by 
Him. 

What boundless thought is contained in this 
parable, enough for a volume of sermons; yes, 
for a series of books. Here is the big word 
Sower, whether we mean the man who is 
abroad in the fields scattering the wheat and oats 
and clover, or the man in business who is seeking 
trade by widely advertising through scattering 
sample packages or by improving the stock of 
goods, or the teacher who is scattering knowl- 
edge by means of the newspaper and magazine 
or in the schoolroom, or the preacher who is 
scattering the Word of God in the Church and 
274 



SOWING AND REAPING 



out of the Church, wherever there is opportu- 
nity. Here is the big word Soil, whether we 
mean the loam upon which the sun falls and 
which drinks in the dew of heaven, and which 
has been fertilized by ice-floe and frost and 



« 7. **• 



A FIELD OF THE GREAT SOWER 



angle-worm, or whether we mean the commer- 
cial field, a teeming world-population, always 
hungry, always demanding that the body shall 
be cared for; or the mind with its ignorance, its 
gropings, its hungerings after knowledge; or 
275 



SOWING AND REAPING 



the heart with its barrenness of sin, with its 
hungering for righteousness and love and God. 
Here is the big word Seed, whether we mean 
the wheat and corn, or the sample package of 
the grocer, or the words of knowledge, or the 
Word of God. And here is the word Fruit, 
whether we mean the shocks of grain and the 
stacks of hay and the branches in the orchard 
bending with the weight of ripened treasure, or 
whether we mean the increased trade and pros- 
perity and wealth of the business-man, or the 
developed mind with its store of knowledge and 
ability to solve problems, or the cultivated heart, 
enriched and stored with every "good word and 
work." 

From the many questions and problems that 
suggest themselves for our consideration, we 
choose one for our theme to-day, "Much Sow- 
ing and Little Reaping." Some seed fell by the 
wayside, and nothing came of it ; some fell upon 
stony places, and nothing came of it; some fell 
among thorns, and nothing came of it; but some 
fell into good ground and brought forth fruit. 
There were four sowings, and three of them 
were in vain ; but there was one reaping. Much 
276 



SOWING AND REAPING 



seed was wasted, much work was done, from 
which there were no returns. But there were 
returns because there had been abundant sow- 
ing. The lesson is apparent. If we sow pro- 
miscuously enough we shall reap the harvest. 

The ministry of Jesus illustrates the sermon- 
thought. He healed ten lepers; nine of them 
forgot Him, only one became His follower. 
He fed at one time five thousand and more with 
the loaves and fishes, and instructed them con- 
cerning the Word of God. And at the close 
of His earthly career, as He was about to 
ascend to the Father, there were only five hun- 
dred with interest enough to gather to bid Him 
good-bye. He taught thousands; only a mere 
handful, perhaps only four or five, heard Him 
well enough to become teachers of the Word 
after Him. 

And here is the question, Why did Jesus 
squander so much time and strength? Why 
did He waste His thought and energy upon 
those nine lepers? Did He not know that they 
would be faithless? I think so>; if He brought 
enough divinity into the world to cure the 
lepers, I think that He brought enough to know 
277 



SOWING AND REAPING 



their future conduct. Possibly not; He "emp- 
tied Himself" when He took the form of a 
man, and perhaps He gave up this power of 
fore-knowledge. But whether or not, one thing 1 
is sure, we could not have foretold; and Jesus, 
in becoming a perfect example for us, must have 
acted as it would have been wise and proper 
for us to act under like circumstances. It would 
seem to us that there would have been such 
gratitude as to make the lepers lasting disciples. 
Are we so dull as not to know folks better? 
They desire healing and strength of body and 
mind, they desire knowledge and genius, some 
of them, not to serve the world but to compel 
the world to serve them. Those lepers wanted 
to be healed that they might enter politics, 
aspire to office, gain position, and be able to 
domineer over folks; or they wanted to hold 
rank in society, and be applauded and nattered; 
or they wanted to enter the commercial world 
and accumulate riches, that they might gloat 
over the shining and clinking of the gold coins. 

But we can not tell how a man will improve 
his opportunity, what he will do with his talent. 
And so if we had been in Jesus' place we would 
278 



SOWING AND REAPING 



have needed to heal the ten. Our ignorance 
makes much fruitless work necessary. We 
must err on the side of mercy, for one of the 
ten may be deserving. Because we can not 
forecast the harvest we must scatter much seed 
on barren fields. Again, Jesus had put the re- 
sponsibility on the individual. He had been 
robbed of excuses. In the day of judgment the 
lepers could not say, "No man gave me a 
chance;" the hungry could not say, "No man 
fed and helped me;" the multitudes could not 
say, "No man told me these things." The seed 
had been sown, the opportunity given, the re- 
sponsibility fixed. Every man must be given a 
chance and so made responsible for his own des- 
tiny. There must be schools for all the chil- 
dren, though many of them do not make good 
use of the knowledge offered to them. There 
must be work for everybody, with the attending 
rewards of food and other necessities and com- 
forts, though some may spurn the task and live 
a life of idleness. There must be culture of 
mind and heart available to all, though many 
may insist upon living boorishly and wantonly 
and sinfully. I repeat, the seed has been sown, 
279 



SOWING AND REAPING 



the opportunity given, the responsibility fixed. 
And here are lessons for the Church and indi- 
vidual. 

This lesson from the Bible of "much sowing 
and little reaping" is a splendid tonic for the 
banishing of discouragement. How often we 
are tempted to say, "What's the use?" The 
tiller of the soil has worked hard, plowing and 
pulverizing the field, planting the seed, cultivat- 
ing the corn. A hail-storm sweeps down out of 
the sky, beating the corn to tatters, leaving only 
a field of wreckage ; and the farmer, looking at 
the wasted field, says, "What 's the use of my 
trying to have any crops?" Audubon tramps 
far and wide over the mountains, through the 
everglades, swimming unbridged rivers, pene- 
trating unpathed forests, studying the birds of 
our country, and with great patience and dili- 
gence transfers their graceful forms and pleas- 
ing colors to plates, only to have an unbridled 
fire leap upon them and burn them to ashes. 
The work of the years has gone out in flames. 
"What's the use?" And this is the title of 
the song or dirge which some gloomy, dismal, 
somber, blear-eyed souls are always wailing, 
280 



SOWING AND REAPING 



"What's the use?" The most discouraging 
thing is not the fruitless seed, is not the fact 
that there are not returns immediate and bounti- 
ful for all our labors; but the most discourag- 
ing thing is the pessimistic complaining of folks 
saying, "What's the use?" The preacher de- 
livers a sermon urging the forsaking of sin, and 
some one says: "What's the use? Folks will 
go on sinning anyhow." He urges the people 
to come to the lecture-course for intellectual de- 
velopment, and some one says: "What's the 
use? They will not come anyhow." He de- 
rides the foolish, destructive habit of nickel 
theaters, and hears: "What's the use? Folks 
will go 1 anyhow." He denounces the lawless 
saloonkeepers and officials who do not compel 
them to obey the law, and hears: "What 's the 
use of offending folks ? They will go on break- 
ing the law anyhow." He tries to make folks 
ashamed of their slow running and little prog- 
ress, and urges upon them the need of higher 
ideals and more faithful service, only to hear: 
"What 's the use of trying" to get folks to lead 
better lives? They will go right on in the old 
paths anyhow." 

281 



SOWING AND REAPING 

"What 's the use?" is the baneful narcotic the 
devil uses in allopathic doses. How often you 
say: "What 's the use of going to church? It 
isn't necessary; I am all right without it. 
What's the use of attending lectures? I am 
more comfortable by the fireside, dozing or 
playing a game of dominoes. What 's the use 
of inviting folks to give their hearts to Christ 
or to become disciples of Christ? They just 
laugh at me. What 's the use of teaching in 
the Mission Sunday-school or calling on the un- 
fortunate or giving money to feed the hungry 
and to clothe the naked? They do not appre- 
ciate it, and it does n't do them any good any- 
how." And many a time, because of the dis- 
couraging atmosphere emanating from our 
neighbors or because of our own seeming failure 
to accomplish our desired purposes, we go with 
Elijah to the juniper tree, wailing "What 's the 
use?" 

But from the juniper tree we can see the 
sower Jesus saw, and the thought under the in- 
spiration of the Holy Spirit comes, "Well, I 
am not the only failure; my experience is the 
very same that Jesus had when He walked 
282 



SOWING AND REAPING 



among men." How often He heard it said to 
Him, and how often it has been said since by 
readers of the Bible, "What was the use of 
trying to* preach to* the Samaritans," forgetting 
that there was a woman of Samaria upon whose 
heart the word of Christ fell as upon fertile 
ground; "what was the use of arguing with the 
Pharisees and disputing with them," forgetting 
that the word of Christ found lodgment in the 
hearts of Joseph and of Nicodemus; "what was 
the use of eating with publicans and sinners," 
forgetting that a Mary Magdalene and a Zac- 
chaeus, most improbable, unlikely soil, received 
the word with gladness and were enriched and 
became enrichers of others; "what was the use 
of going to Jerusalem to die," forgetting that 
ever since the multitudes with shoulders bend- 
ing with their burdens, and hearts sore with 
their sins, have found the cross of Christ as a 
shelter in the time of storm, the lifter of bur- 
dens, the comforter of hearts? 

And if we count it failure because there are 
not apparent returns for all of our labors, then 
we must count God equally a failure. Our 
complaining spirits say: "What's the use of 
283 



SOWING AND REAPING 



all the stars? Many of them have never been 
seen, and many of them only by the few who 
have looked through powerful telescopes; and 
even of those within range of the eye, they are 
no good, they do not feed anybody, they do 
not make anybody any richer. And what is the 
use of the flowers that bloom in the woods, and 
the mountains where nobody ever goes? And 
what is the use of all the plants which we call 
weeds, and of all the insects with wings of gos- 
samer or with richly-colored outer wings; and 
what is the use of all the birds and all the fishes 
and all the vermin?" But in spite of our petty 
complaints God goes on sowing the sky with 
suns and planets and constellations, goes on 
sowing the desert and waste places of the earth 
with beautiful flowers, goes on sowing the 
land with beautiful birds and songs of birds, 
goes on sowing the mountains with trees and 
shrubs, the seas with fishes and delicate sea- 
weed. 

What does it mean? Perhaps nothing is 
wasted. It may be for the time; but perhaps 
eventually everything has its place in the world's 
journey toward God. Perhaps what for the 
284 



SOWING AND REAPING 



moment seems to be wasted endeavor or battle 
lost may prove to be the very winning of the 
campaign. Perhaps the failure to accomplish 
a certain purpose may accomplish a greater pur- 
pose, help to execute a broader plan. There 
are compensations to be taken into account. 
The farmer has gained health and experience 
if he has lost the corn. Do we know enough 
to say that anything is a failure? But after 
all the lesson is this, our much sowing without 
a returning harvest is the same experience that 
God has and that Christ the Son of God had. 
And if we are in line with them, having the 
same experience they have, we are in the right 
path. And there is this other thought spring- 
ing, "Who is judge?" What business have 
we to judge as to results? "What 's the use?" 
as spoken above, are blasphemous words. It 
is not our business to measure the returns, and 
to quit because they do not seem to us adequate 
for the labor invested. It is the business of 
Paul and Apollos to sow the seed, God will 
attend to the increase. 

Here is also the lesson of indiscriminate sow- 
ing, sowing everywhere with the hope that in 
285 



SOWING AND REAPING 



places unexpected as well as expected there shall 
spring a harvest. This is God's method in Na- 
ture. On a single dandelion-stem He builds a 
hundred seeds and equips them with wings and 
sends the wind that snatches them from their 
bed and carries them everywhere. He builds 
a hundred thousand seeds upon the maple tree, 
and to each He gives a sail, so that they are 
scattered far and wide before the breeze. Some 
seeds are carried by the streams, some by the 
feet of birds, some are attached to the hair of 
animals. God employs many methods, He is 
insistent always; and as a result the seeds are 
scattered everywhere, on fertile ground and on 
sterile ground, where vegetation already grows 
luxuriantly and where it has been swept away 
by fire and where it has never grown on some 
coral-island of the sea. Most of the seeds die, 
some of them live. Some spring up at once, 
and some wait many years. The pine forest 
is cut down or burned, and straightway the de- 
ciduous forest springs up in its place. The 
seed had been sown, and was waiting its chance. 
God keeps the plant-kingdom going by this in- 
discriminate sowing, generous sowing. 

286 



SOWING AND REAPING 



God is following the same method in the 
animal kingdom. A fish lays a million eggs. 
What's the use? The vast majority will be 
destroyed, devoured as eggs or as little fishes. 




NESTING IN HIDDEN PLACES 

And we perhaps say, "Wasted ;" but God propa- 
gates fish that way. The same plan is true of 
the birds. They are scattered everywhere, 
nesting everywhere, in hidden places and in 
287 



SOWING AND REAPING 



open places. The vast majority are destroyed 
by storms or by vermin as eggs or young birds 
not out of the nest, but God gives the music 
and gay colors of the birds to us by that method. 

Must it always be true that "the children 
of this world are wiser than the children of 
light?" for men in business follow the same 
method. They advertise their wares in many 
places and in many ways, in magazines and 
newspapers and Church literature, on fences and 
barns, by circulars and personal letters, by sam- 
ples and agents, not expecting that all of these 
methods will bring a harvest, but expecting that 
by this indiscriminate sowing there will come a 
sufficient harvest. The man on the farm learns 
the same lesson, to sow many kinds of seeds, 
to have various crops, to employ diversified 
farming, so that, though some might fail, not 
all would fail. 

And this is the very method that has brought 
success to the Kingdom of God. How often 
Paul must have felt like saying, "What 's the 
use?" Why, there was shipwreck and prison 
and flogging and stoning and threatening and 
peril. How useless, hopeless it seemed to be 
288 



SOWING AND REAPING 



talking before Felix and Agrippa and the cen- 
turion and the mobs that assailed him and the 
soldiers who guarded him. Nearly all of 
Paul's words were wasted; but because he per- 
sisted with noble patience to sow the seed, some 
of it found its way into fertile soil, and the day 
came when Tertullian was able to give his mes- 
sage concerning the power of the gospel to the 
Roman official, and the Roman Empire was 
conquered, and Europe was converted, and the 
world brought within reach of the gospel. 
How often John Wesley must have felt like 
running before the storm rather than submit- 
ting himself to abuses and revilings and attacks 
of mobs. But because he splendidly persisted, 
preaching to high and low, rich and poor, 
farmer and miner and city-dweller, there came 
the great revival that saved England from a 
"French Revolution." 

God builds His Kingdom that way. He 
floods the world with His Spirit. Like the 
wind, it moves everywhere; like the seed, it 
lodges everywhere. Most of it seems to bear 
no fruit; but now and then it strikes fertile 
soil, and there grows up a Moses or Isaiah, a 
289 



SOWING AND REAPING 



Peter or Paul, a Luther or Wesley, a McCabe 
or Moody. The seed is sown in the Pacific 
Garden Mission, and a McAuley or Sunday is 
converted; in a country revival-meeting, with 
bad roads and a scanty attendance to discourage, 
and a Bristol or Mclntyre is converted; in a 
city-revival, and a Drummond or Grenfell is 
won to God. A street-corner meeting, the sing- 
ing or whistling of a gospel song, a word fitly 
spoken, may be the fruitful seed. 

The Church and the individual Christian 
need to learn this lesson. This is no plea for 
slipshod, unorganized methods, but the danger 
in our day is of too much organization. We 
are putting too much emphasis upon it, we are 
too careful not to waste any of our efforts, we 
are too insistent upon returns, we are afraid of 
wasted efforts ; too much of our strength is be- 
ing dissipated, wasted in trying to prevent seed 
from falling upon stony ground; too much 
time is being wasted by the sower trying to pick 
up the seed from the wayside. The need is for 
more sowing, more indiscriminate sowing. Let 
the pastor take his Christmas cards with a word 
for Christ to every home he can reach. Many 
290 



SOWING AND REAPING 



families will care nothing for them, but some 
will be cheered by the remembrance, and here 
and there one may be brought to Christ. Let 
him preach sermons to everybody. Some may 
sleep under them, but now and then one may 
be saved. The need is that laymen shall not 
have a select few in whom they are interested, 
but shall rather invite everybody to whom they 
have access, to church; invite them repeatedly, 
no matter how often the invitation has gone un- 
heeded; shall tell everybody who will give any 
opportunity the good news about Jesus Christ, 
improving every opportunity, being all things 
to all men, being instant in season and out of 
season; for this is God's method and the method 
He would have His children follow. 

The final lesson for our encouragement is 
that the harvest is certain. We are sure of 
this, that most of the seed will not grow. That 
is the lesson of Nature: a hundred seeds sown 
for one plant builded; seed destroyed ruthlessly 
on every side, and yet some of it finding the 
fertile soil and producing the certain harvest. 
And this is the experience of the Church. Why, 
there has been preaching enough and there have 
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been Bibles enough printed to have saved the 
world long since. But much of the effort has 
been vain. 

And we are also sure that we can not fore- 
cast the results through knowing where the soil 
is fertile or what seed is fertile. We can not 
tell what sermon may bring conviction to some 
wandering soul, what boy in the Sunday-school 
may become the great leader for God, what 
visit for Christ to a neighbor may bring knowl- 
edge of God to that home, what word may be 
the word that shall arouse some good impulse. 

But of this we may be confident, that if we 
are faithful to our task of sowing we are sure 
of the harvest. "What 's the use of preach- 
ing?" we say; but the Church grows amazingly; 
it runs, and does not grow weary; it leaps from 
shore to shore, and the voice of Christ is heard 
in every land. "What is the use of trying to 
do charitable work?" we say; but asylums and 
hospitals and libraries spring up like mush- 
rooms in the night, and the sufferers are being 
relieved from famine, and playgrounds are be- 
ing built for the poor, and wealth is being 
poured into the lap of the Church so prodigally 
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that it is embarrassed by its very abundance. 
"What is the use of fighting the saloon?" we 
say; but last year fifteen thousand were put out 
of commission, were padlocked, and the move- 
ment toward their complete abolition sweeps on 
amazingly. "What is the use of trying to lead 
a good life, a useful life, a Christlike life?" 
We make so many failures, we fall so often, we 
commit so many sins; but somehow under re- 
peated effort and renewed effort the character 
does grow toward God, and righteousness does 
get firmer lodgment in our lives, and the King- 
dom of God grows night and day, we know not 
how. And so the problem is a simple one. He 
that sows promiscuously enough shall reap the 
certain harvest. Therefore let us go 1 forth 
sowing the seed, even though with weeping; 
sowing it abundantly, persistently; knowing that 
we shall come again with rejoicing, bearing the 
sheaves. 



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GOOD-BYE 



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One copy del. to Cat. Div. 

AUG go i w I 



